The League of Dǻrlig Ulv
by Alberto Fedrigotti
Summary: Like that cannon was ever gonna get Rose back on the first try. Thrust into a third parallel universe, she must work with three wolves of a different sort to save yet another world.
1. Whole Lot of Leavin'

The League of Dǻlig Ulv

Disclaimer 3.1—I've been out of the loop for so long, it's not even funny. Grad school's a slang term for dogs that I choose not to repeat on the off-chance there are women present, my old laptop broke down, and there have been multiple deaths in the family. Nothing we weren't already expecting, but they hurt nevertheless. Back to actual disclaimer fodder: I own nothing, but that's why we're all here to begin with, isn't it?

Timeframe: DW-Shortly before "Partners in Crime." May eventually contain a spoiler or two for Partners in Crime, Turn Left and The Stolen Earth, but you've had two years to watch those episodes by now, so tough. PR-after JF, the point beyond which no one's sure where canon breaks down because no one can pinpoint a time frame for RPM. And with that, we're off and running.  
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For Rose Tyler, the day had started out much the same as every other day had since her unfortunate arrival in what she still thought of as Pete's World. She had left her flat clad in the jeans and blue leather jacket that had practically become her uniform and driven off to this universe's Torchwood Institute, the route shaded by the ubiquitous zeppelins that cluttered the skies of this parallel earth she had found herself stranded in for the past two years.

Of course, this was far from any other day. After a year's worth of research and several more months of development, the newly reconfigured dimension cannon was finally ready to test. She was going home—she hoped. _Well, yeah_, she thought, _mum's here and so is my brother…or is that half-brother…never mind, even with all the things and people I've seen, some things are still too confusing_. The point, she reminded herself, was that while she lived on Pete's World, it wasn't home. Home had been ripped out of her grasp, literally, in a high-rise at Canary Wharf, on a day that, for her, was more infamous than December 7th was to Americans, because it had been the day she lost him. That horrible moment was still seared into her memory, haunting her nightmares, torturing her brain. Forget cursing herself over losing her grasp on that lever, she couldn't even look at a slot machine now without tearing up and remembering who she had been dragged away from, and who she was hoping to return to—her Doctor.

Not just any doctor but _the_ Doctor, the lonely wanderer from the stars, whose first word to her hadn't been a greeting but a command. He had told her to run, and for two years they never stopped running, going from a blue-collar section of London to the end of the world, centuries into the past and future and halfway across the universe, usually pausing only long enough to smell the flowers, right a wrong or two and save the world, because—well, did they really need a reason? It was just what they did, and it was perfect, the two of them hopping all over the cosmos in a blue box, Mutt and Jeff, Shiver and Shake (though how she had ended up as Shiver was still a mystery to her), the Doctor and Rose. And hopefully, they would be like that again soon.

The warning klaxon sounded as the gear-like door to the complex opened, announcing Rose's arrival. "So, today's D-day, eh?" Mickey Smith asked from his desk, glancing up with a look that conveyed hope and concern towards the girl who had been anything and everything to him at one time or another. Since being dropped into this world, they had really been each other's shrink more than anything. Whenever events reminded one or the other a little too much of home, the two would make a run for chips and then go up on the roof, where they could complain about the subtle differences in this universe or homesickness or whatever was on their minds.

"Either that or I've finally made the lot of you as sick of waiting as I am," Rose fired back, flashing the brightest grin she'd had on her face in months. "You ready for this, mate?"

"No, but it's not like it's my call or anything," Mickey replied. "There's still time to change your mind on this one, you know."

"I made my choice a long time ago, and I've made that clear to all of you, repeatedly."

"I know, but your mum would kill me if I didn't at least try to talk you out of this."

"Well, you've covered your behind, then, Mickey," she told him.

"How many times have I told him not to expose it in the first place?" Jake joked as he walked up from behind the two. "You know what you're doing, then?"

"Yeah," Rose told him. "I just hope it works."

"We've run the tests and it should work just fine," Jake told her, with a less than confident look on his face, "but…"

"But what?"

"Remember that our world is sealed off from this one," Mickey finished for him

"I remember that all too well" Rose responded, a small lump forming in the back of his throat. "So how do I get around that?"

"To get there, you'll have to go to a different world altogether, then figure out how to get from that one to our original one. But we have no idea what adjustments you'll have to make to the canon for the return trip."

Rose bit her lower lip and thought about that possibility for a second. "Well, that's a risk I'll just have to take."

"And if you end up in the wrong spot?"

"Then I'll zap back here and we try again. As many times as it takes."

"Right then," Jake said, heading for the door, "is there anything else you need us to do?"

"You can try to keep mum from killing Mickey here when one of you lot tells her what you just told me."

"Fat chance," Jake told her. "I once had the misfortune to be on the receiving end of one of Mrs. Tyler's slaps. Don't need that again."

"Oi, where does that leave me?" Mickey yelped.

"Same place it always has," Rose chuckled.

"Not funny."

"It is to me."

"Yeah, cause you won't be around for the damage control."

"Well, that's true."

"I guess I could hide in your dad's office and hope it all boils over."

"You wouldn't stand a chance. That's the first place she'd look."

"Can we just get a move on with this already," Jake bemoaned. "Some of us who aren't leaving would like to get on with our day too, you know."

"Fair enough," Mickey snapped back. "You got any parting words or anything?"

"Just that it's time for this big, bad wolf to find the rest of her pack," Rose told him, pulling him into a hug. "But you guys take care of yourselves, okay? And tell Tony about me, whatever happens."

"That was a given, Rose. Take care of yourself, too."

"And make sure the good Doctor knows what's going on here. It's not just one universe he's got to save," Jake called as Rose headed for the research lab and the journey that awaited her.  
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In another universe, far removed from the chaos of a year that never would be, a wolf of a very different sort was sitting at a computer desk in yet another version of Torchwood wondering just what the world had in store for him today.

When he had returned to Earth permanently, William Cranston, better known to his friends as "Billy," had expected life to slow down a bit. No such luck. His arrival had coincided with yet another outbreak of alien invasions in his native California, which was immediately confronted by yet another group calling themselves Power Rangers, wearing costumes that looked eerily familiar to Billy, especially the blue one. Deciding to get as far away from the spandex-related chaos as he could, he had headed to Great Britain to finally take Cambridge up on that scholarship offer they had extended nearly a decade earlier. He had been sightseeing in London on the Saturday that the Slitheen spaceship had crashed in the Thames in his universe. Aliens attacking earth was old hat to Billy, though he found it odd that this one had decided to appear somewhere other than America. Nevertheless, having come to the conclusion that this kind of insanity was simply going to follow him wherever he went, he had answered the call, and his hacking skills had proven invaluable in translating the creatures' communications system—and with it, their plan to destroy the planet and use it for scrap metal.

In the aftermath of that threat, Billy's actions had drawn the attention of a woman calling herself Dr. Sato, who made the genius an offer he couldn't refuse. So, ever since that day, he had been back in the game, tracking down extra-terrestrial beings, dissecting technology and saving the planet on many an occasion. The fact he could show his face while doing it was freeing, in a way. Relying on wits and teammates were habits that were hard to break, no matter how far from home you had strayed. As was the affinity for wearing blue, though given how prevalent denim was in fashion, an outside observer wouldn't pick up on it readily.

When Dr. Sato transferred to Torchwood Three in Cardiff, she had nominated him as her replacement at the main branch in London, and he had gladly accepted. Given the things he had seen since that fateful day in his freshman year of high school, it was hard to imagine himself "fitting in" anywhere else in the world. _Leave the costumes and 20-story robots to Tommy_, he often thought to himself. _You can do so much more with a hard drive and a well-armed van._ If his time saving the world in the 1990s had taught him that anything is possible, his exploits in England had instilled a firm belief in a line from a science fiction series. A Latin phrase that went _una__ spes fatum est non spes salus:_ "The one hope of the damned is not to hope for safety." A theory that would be put to the test time and time again as Billy and his team dealt with one bizarre case after another, though much as was the case in Angel Grove years before, more often than not, everybody lived to tell the tale. Or at least, they could put the tale down on paper knowing it would not be revealed to the public for 150 years by act of Parliament. (Author's Note: For my fellow Yanks reading this, there actually is such a law keeping the royal diary under wraps for an absurdly long amount of time, in the interest of protecting state secrets. Carry on.)

This particular morning's peace was broken by a phone call. Billy sighed, and then he picked up the receiver. "Cranston here."

"Bill, it's Andrew" came the reply of Andrew Hartford, an American millionaire/thrill seeker who fancied himself a latter-day Indiana Jones and had done some freelance work with Torchwood before creating his own Ranger team to locate and protect a set of precious stones from the clutches of no less than five separate megalomaniacal aliens.

"Since it's one in the morning in California, I take it this isn't a social call, Mr. Hartford," Billy responded, mentally preparing for something dire to be introduced to the conversation.

"Believe me, Bill, I wish it was," Andrew told him, "but Mack just got done running the diagnostics and it doesn't look good."

"What is it this time?"

"We were just going over those Hubble images you e-mailed us. We've been comparing them with our star charts and…well, there's an entire constellation missing."

Billy did a spit take at that, leaving coffee sprayed all over the computer monitor. "_What?"_

"You heard me right. Arcturus is missing."

"The _entire_ constellation?"

"Yes."

"And there's no chance this is some practical joke, like if you e-mailed this to me, I'd click on the link and see a Rick Astley video?"

"The song wasn't that bad when he recorded it."

"Can we get back to the fact that an _entire constellation has vanished_?"

"Gladly. Any thoughts on what we should be doing about it?"

"Believe it or not, I have no idea. I guess for now you should call Adam and get the rest of the gang up to speed."

"Alright. And if you come up with any ideas, you've got all of Operation Overdrive at your service."

"Thanks, Andrew," Billy gave him a quick goodbye, then called the front desk.

"Good morning, Mr. Cranston," the voice answered.

"Tell the team to assemble in the war room. And send out the alarm."

"Which color?"

"Mauve."  
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Halfway around Billy's world, Robert "RJ" James was sweeping the floor and getting ready to lock up his rather eclectic pizza parlor for the night when a strange traveler wandered in and asked to speak to the manager.

"You're looking at him," RJ told the stranger.

"The time has come," the stranger told him cryptically.

"Absolutely, it's time to go home and recharge after a rough day in the food service industry—but somehow I don't think that's what you meant."

"Good, you're not as oblivious as you sound."

"Okay, I'm going to assume that that was your stomach talking. We're closed for the night, but if you'd care to stay and extemporize on that opening line, I'll see what I can scrounge up."

"Sorry about that," the stranger said. "Just had to make sure you were really the one."

"Well, RJ, party of one, speaking. And you would be?"

The man held up a strange-looking cell phone, which was blinking an odd shade that looked almost purple, but darker, somehow. "The name's Merrick, and you and I have both been summoned to merry old England." Before RJ could ask another question, Merrick took hold of his arm, and the two disappeared.  
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Author's notes: Yes, Ranger fans, the wolves are coming together to save the universe, with a major assist from a not-so-proper English Rose. I'm sorry if Merrick and RJ get out of character, I've never tried to write either of them before. In fact, the last time I sat at a computer and tried to do something like this, RJ didn't exist yet. It really has been that long. As for the Whovians out there, I know what you're thinking. A Doctor Who story without the Doctor? That's why they call it a crossover. Series 2 (#29 overall) left us with Rose trapped in another universe, working for the organization responsible for her being there, with over a year's worth of gaps to fill in before she shows up again out of the blue. She had to have been doing something.  
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	2. Destination: Anywhere

Disclaimer: It's not mine, I just play here because they've got better toys. Decided to break up the first chapter half because I don't trust my ability to come up with 4,000 words every time.

Billy watched as the main staff of Torchwood One took their places in the top floor and waited for his announcement. They were all a little spooked by the Code Mauve that he had ordered. Billy just found it amusing that while Code Red was a traditional Earth way of giving warning, outside the Sol system it was used to announce festive events, royal births and the like. Galactically speaking, red was considered cause for celebration. Mauve, on the other hand, was a color that indicated the gravest threat possible. (DW-The Empty Child, watch and enjoy, if only for the end of the next episode, where "just this once, everybody lives!") The system, which seemed so bizarre to everyone on earth, seemed to go perfectly with an organization that was designed to investigate the out of the ordinary, and so he installed it on the day he took over. Sensing that everyone in the room was a bit on edge, he attempted to start the meeting with a little humor.

"I've brought you all here to name the murderer," he started, then changed his mind when no one seemed to get it. "Okay, to be serious, this is the direst circumstance I believe Torchwood has ever faced and we don't know what it is yet. Last night, these images were taken with the Hubble Space Telescope," he started, beginning the slide show presentation showing what looked like a typical dark patch in the night sky, with little in the way of stars or deep space objects.

"It's blank. The telescope is malfunctioning?" mused one of the younger folks sitting around the table.

"Not even close," Billy told the kid. "This is a chart of the constellation Arcturus," he continued, showing the next slide. "And this is what Arcturus would look like," he said, changing the slide, showing the first picture alongside an identical image, "with all the stars removed."

An audible gasp was heard from several of those seated around the room. "Something just wiped out an entire constellation?"

"Not something. Someone. And we need to find out who and how."

Before he could start delegating tasks, an alarm went off throughout the building.

"Status report," Billy demanded of the security chief.

"There's a massive energy signature that appears to be opening on the roof," the guard responded.

"The rift?" Billy asked.

"Affirmative." The "rift" was a tear in the fabric of spacetime that existed about 10 feet above Torchwood One's main tower. Billy knew there was a similar hole above Torchwood Three in Cardiff, from what Dr. Sato had told him, and though he had never been to Torchwood Two in Scotland, he imagined he would find a similar situation there.

"Well, then , everybody gear up and get to the roof," Billy ordered, pressing a button that slid open the far wall in the room, revealing flak jackets and crash helmets for everyone on the floor. They'd be ready to go on the defensive right away. Today just kept getting curiouser and curiouser.  
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Back in Pete's World, Rose was alone in the lab, getting her gear together, including a massive gun designed to exterminate a Dalek in one shot. _Best to be prepared for anything_, she thought, as she picked up the canon which had been absorbing energy from the rift overnight. A jump such as this required a tremendous amount of power, giving off ridiculous amounts of energy, which manifested itself as heat, contributing to climate change in ways that most scientists in their world were unable to calculate. That was why they had stopped after the Canary Wharf incident. That, plus that last battle had given them a co-worker for whom the program was a reminder of just what the cost of that battle had been. But desperate times, after all, call for desperate measures.

"Well," she said aloud to herself, "I guess this is it. Time to go home."

"You know the door's always open for you here."

Rose turned to see who had uttered that line and found Pete Tyler standing in the doorway, half-smiling. This had always been the most complicated relationship Rose had had in this world, not knowing how to talk to this man who looked exactly like her father, but wasn't him. He had been shocked by it in their first meeting, but had come around to the point that he had saved her from falling into the void between dimensions in their second encounter, which is how she came to be stranded here. Pete was the head of Torchwood in his universe, and had immediately offered her a job there, giving her something to keep her occupied as well as put her experience running around the universe to good use.

The tabloids had had a field day attempting to explain her arrival and her connections to Pete. The two had watched in horror and embarrassment as the papers insinuated all sorts of things: that she was his mistress, that she was Jackie's love child with another man (which was technically true, but still), and many other items that brought some hefty libel suits, the settlements of which were going to put her little brother through university someday.

"I know, and it's not like I don't appreciate that—Dad," Rose started, "but—"

"I know," Pete reassured her. "You wouldn't be the girl I know if you didn't try."

"Thanks for understanding."

"Of course," he told her, pulling her into a hug. "Now, is there anything you still need to do before I go stock up on helmets and bulletproof vests?"

"Come on, Mum won't be that hard on you, will she?"

"Just a joke, dear. She may not be saying anything to me for a bit, but deep down she understands."

"Oh," Rose started, pulling him back in for another hug, "just keep watching out for her, things'll get back to normal soon—or as normal as they get around 'ere at least."

"Of course. You be careful out there, okay?"

"I will."

"Right then. Off you go," Pete told her, and headed outside the lab to a room where he could monitor the jump safely.

"Well," Rose started speaking to herself again, "No time like the present." She placed her finger on the trigger button and smiled to herself. "We all ready in there?"

"Ready when you are, ya big, bad wolf," Mickey called over the intercom.

"All systems are in the green, you may fire when ready," Jake told her.

"Right then, for old times' sake—_ALLONS-Y!_" She pressed the button, then vanished from the room in a flash of light.

Pete watched through the window until the light faded, then turned to Jake and Mickey. "How long until she can get back here?"

Jake looked at Mickey, then back at Pete. "We don't know."  
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RJ had seen all kinds of crazy things over the years. Being the son of a Pai Zhua master and then mentoring/fighting alongside a Ranger team will do that to you. So being transported from a downtown pizza parlor at one in the morning to a forest where it seemed to be mid-morning was odd, but not the last thing he would have expected. He turned to the man who had brought him here and asked, "So now that you've got me, what are you going to do with me?"

"There's a situation brewing in space that threatens every living thing, cub, and the answers lie across the sea." The voice that responded was distinctly female, throwing RJ off guard. He turned to find a woman in a draped white gown with a garland of flowers in her hair.

"Princess Shayla," Merrick addressed the woman, dropping to one knee as he spoke.

"Um, excuse me," RJ interjected, "I was closing up and getting ready to go home and sleep when this guy over here tells me I'm supposed to go with him and the next thing I know I'm wandering around in the woods. Can someone tell me what's going on?"

"The darkness is coming," the princess told him.

"Okay. Could you be any more cryptic?"

"The stars are going out, and whatever has caused it is spreading, threatening not just the earth, but the entire universe."

"Okay, maybe cryptic was better."

"The only way to stop it is to unite the pack."

"What pack?"

"Think about it," Merrick told him. "You're a wolf spirit. I was the Lunar Wolf Ranger. There was one who came before us who also followed this path."

"And a wanderer from beyond who will guide you in this quest," Shayla finished for him. "She is arriving soon, and your fellow pack member will find her shortly. I will bring you to them."

"Okay, so who was this wolf we're meeting up with?"

"His name is Billy," Shayla told the two. "He was there on the day the war began in this world."

"You mean he fought Rita?"

"As the first of this planet to wear the blue armor, yes he did. After leaving the fight, he journeyed the stars, learning as we went. He returned to Earth several years ago and has been defending it in another fashion ever since."

"So, he's as likely as anyone else to have more answers," Merrick asked.

"Yes. We will be arriving soon. Perhaps you would like to rest while we are en route? Merrick can show you to the sleeping quarters."

RJ gratefully took her up on that offer. As his head hit the pillow, he briefly wondered to himself if he should have brought his passport.  
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	3. She's a Mystery

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters; it's just a fun place to hang out. Oh, and for the sake of the DW timeline, I've said it takes place before Partners in Crime, let's move it into the infamous Year That Never Was, just so there'll be an excuse for them all to forget it when it's over.

As the security staff of Torchwood One gathered on the roof of the building, Billy had no clue what was going to fall out of the rift, but the readings they had gotten showed this was not going to be your typical weevil. Indeed, while the readings implied that the rift was not being manipulated by anyone here, the energy signature was distinctively Torchwood's. "Stun guns ready," Billy ordered as the soldiers took their positions around the perimeter of the roof. Whatever it was, they would be as prepared as they could.

So it came as a surprise when the rift suddenly opened up and a blonde humanoid fell out, taking a hard spill on the concrete roof, a rather large gun landing on its back. When the creature, which appeared to be female, didn't get up right away, half of the soldiers trained their guns up at the rift, which promptly closed shut as though nothing had ever been there. Billy cautiously approached the woman and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Anyone get the number of that lorry?" the woman answered, dazed and confused by her surroundings. The two versions of Torchwood One she had been both had one additional floor, allowing them to bring the rift indoors. This tower, however, stopped short of the anomaly, making that first step, indeed, a big one. The fact that her interrogator had an American accent only added to her bewilderment.

"That was a pretty bad fall you just took there, Miss…?"

"Tyler. Rose—Tyler." With that, she slumped back down to the roof, slipping into unconsciousness.

Billy seemed to be convinced that, whoever this Rose Tyler was, she did not pose an immediate threat. However, he also concluded that she had likely suffered a concussion from the fall, so he ordered a couple of the guards to help her up and take her to the medical facilities on the fifth floor for observation. Everyone else got back to work, trying to figure out why a constellation had disappeared into the vacuum of space.  
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Back in that forest on a floating island, Merrick was having a long talk with the Princess, the woman he had guarded with his life several millennia ago. A woman he was sworn to protect to the last, and whom he would be madly professing his love for, if he weren't bound by duty not to get involved. Seing as that sort of conversation would not be in the cards anytime soon, Merrick decided to inquire about the nature of this mysterious fourth member of their pick-up team.

"So, this whole wolf thing. I mean, RJ, Billy, myself, that makes sense. But what does this stranger have to do with all of this?"

"I wish I could say for certain. All I know is that she, too, bears the mark of the wolf. And yet, it is different from yours, it is not a spirit that one can detect with her, more a sense of foreboding."

"That doesn't really give us much to go on."

"No, but Billy will find her soon, if he hasn't already. Now, you should go awaken our guest. We will be arriving soon."

"As you wish, Princess," Merrick replied before turning and heading off to the room where he had left RJ a few hours earlier.  
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An hour later, Billy was holed up in front of his computer going over the Hartford's report when he got a message from the front desk that two gentlemen had appeared out of nowhere and asked to speak with him. Deciding that he could use the distraction, he decided to go down to the lobby and meet the two guys in person. One could imagine his surprise to find Merrick Balliton and Robert James waiting for him when he got out of the lift.

"RJ, Merrick," Billy started, greeting the pair with a smile and a handshake. "I'm afraid I have to admit, on the list of people I would have guessed were waiting down here, the two of you wouldn't have been anywhere near the top. What brings you to London?"

"The same problem you're dealing with now," RJ replied.

"Apparently," Merrick continued, "this is a bigger problem than any of us realize. Princess Shayla didn't give us much in the way of details, but apparently solving the issue involves getting the three of us wolves together. She said something about another wolf joining us, a 'wanderer from beyond' as she put it. She also implied that you would likely have met this person by the time we arrived."

"I don't have a definitive answer on that yet," Billy answered him, "but that may have something to do with our visitor in sickbay."

"What happened?"

"Her name is Rose Tyler, and she literally decided to drop in. Fell through the rift and landed on the roof." Billy's cell phone sounded off then, indicating an incoming text message. He looked at it briefly, then returned his eyes to the two men. "You're in luck. It looks like she's waking up. Follow me." The trio anxiously walked to the lift.

"So, RJ, your team finally get that situation under control in California?" Billy asked. He had kept an eye on things in the States when the opportunity presented itself, as alien attacks on the Pacific Coast had seemingly become as annual an event in America as the Super Bowl. Yet they were always turned away by another team of rangers, each team and opponent more bizarre than the last. This year's attack seemed to be running behind schedule, however, as it was already March and there had been not so much as a hint of activity on that front. The lack of an attack made Billy even more nervous, as the last time they'd gone an entire calendar year without one had been the year he'd joined his current employers.

"Yeah, it's over," RJ answered. "The cubs went back to the school to finish their training, and Dom and Fran are off seeing the sights. It's been pretty quiet the last couple months, or at least it was until this guy showed up."

"Sorry, but in my defense, this is an emergency," Merrick responded.

"You don't know the half of it," Billy told him. "I just had a call from Andrew Hartford a couple hours ago."

"Andrew 'Don't Call Me Indy' Hartford?" RJ asked as they exited the lift.

"Affirmative. I had him and his kid look over these photographs the Hubble took the other day, and it seems an entire constellation is no longer up there."

"That's something else that princess was telling us. Something about the stars going out and it affecting every universe. But that doesn't make sense. There's only one universe, isn't there?"

"Not even close. How familiar are you guys with…you know what, _Star Trek_ did a better job of explaining it than I ever could, so I'm going to try to tell it how they did. For every choice one can make, there exists a universe running parallel to ours where that choice plays out. To use a big example," Billy paused for a moment to make sure no one else was within earshot, then continued. "After the first Power Rangers' Day in Angel Grove, when the town got kidnapped, our mentor, Zordon, gave the five of us the opportunity to step down, right then and there, no questions asked. There's a universe out there somewhere where we took him up on that offer."

"A scary thought if ever there was one," Merrick responded.

"You're telling me. And for that matter, who knows what universes there are out there where we don't even exist because of choices made decades or even millennia ago. For all I know, there's a universe out there where we're just characters on a television show and I'm really a 40-year-old chain smoker named Dave."

"And where Max had a recurring role on a soap opera," Merrick piled on.

"And said TV program that we were all on was cut-and-pasted from a Japanese version of that same show," RJ finished. They looked at each other silently for a second.

"Like that would ever happen!" exclaimed Billy, who could no longer keep a straight face over the bizarre turn this conversation had taken. He calmed himself down as they entered the sickbay, guiding his compatriots over to the bedside of their other guest, who was waking up and was ready to start getting a few answers.

"Miss Tyler," Billy started. "Welcome to Torchwood. My name's William Cranston, though most people call me Billy. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes, and if we're all going to be on first name terms, you can call me Rose."

"Very well then, Rose. These are two associates of mine, Merrick and RJ," Billy responded, indicating which was which. "So judging by the accent, I'd say you're from right here in London."

"Powell Estate, in the south end of town."

"Hmm. There's only one problem with that." Billy told her.

"And what's that, Billy?"

"The Powell Estates were renovated last year, stern to stem, converted into an office complex. Which means you're a lot further from home than you realize."

"Try me," she responded with an amused expression on her face.

"Well, there is the matter of you appearing out of thin air, and the two devices that came with you. One of them was a comically large firearm."

"Which was brought in the interest of being ready for anything. You're the one who sounds like they're from America. Were you never in the bloody Boy Scouts?"

"No, but I can respect the whole 'be prepared' sentiment. Then there was that other piece of technology you had on your person. The one that our lab is getting a good look at right now."

"That? It's a coffee maker," Rose responded sarcastically. "It's what got me here."

"I don't doubt that for a second, Rose. But the question is, from where?"

"How familiar are you with the concept of parallel universes?"

Billy exchanged a quick glance with Merrick and RJ. "As a matter of fact, we were just discussing the theory behind that on our way up here."

"I'm from one. And not the one I got here from, either."

"So that device transports you between universes?"

"We call it a 'Dimensional Cannon.' It's a bit dangerous. It literally rips a hole between universes, transporting you from one into another."

"That explains the readings we were getting from the rift earlier."

"Yup. The energy released in the process is rather off the charts, so we try to only use it in extreme circumstances. But the current situation qualifies."

"I think I agree with that assessment."

"What do you mean?"

"We got rather a rude awakening today. The constellation Arcturus had disappeared."

"The stars are going out here, too?"

"Affirmative."

"Fantastic."

"So, this was happening in your universe as well?"

"Yes, only it's not my universe."

"But it's the one you came from."

"Yup."

"And it's the one where you built this Dimensional Cannon."

"Yup."

"Then how is it not your universe?"

"You want to go to your linen closet and grab a sleeping bag, 'cause this could take a while."  
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Back in the universe where we started our story, Pete Tyler was—well, incensed might be too strong a word, but livid will do nicely. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"Exactly what it sounds like, sir," Mickey told him. "It's not like before, when we knew exactly where the cannon came out. Last time, we were going to a universe which had had contact with this one before. We could tune our observation equipment to that parallel world because we knew what to set all of them to, like the frequency on a radio."

"Well, then let's start scanning the dials. Wherever she's ended up, it can't be that far off from ours, can it?"

"You never can tell for certain, sir," Jake reminded him. "I mean, the other world had Mick here and a parallel version of your wife. But that doesn't mean that every world will. What if she found some place where all this," he held out his hands to indicate the entirety of the lab, "is purely hypothetical. Where we don't exist, or worse."

"Like one where the Cybermen weren't stopped and—"

"Yeah, let's try not to think about that possibility, shall we?" Mickey said, casting a long glare in Jake's direction. "If nothing else, you know that Rose is battle tested. She's got two years of running around with the Doc. That'll toughen up anyone."

"That's true," Pete reminded himself. "I just hope it's enough."  
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It was two hours later when Rose had finally finished telling the story of the last four years of her life, from that evening at Henrik's when she had nearly been killed by plastic mannequins and met the enigmatic Doctor, to the end of the world, to the alien attack that had played out rather a lot like the one that had gotten Billy hired at his version of Torchwood, through the Doctor's regeneration (she was still fuzzy on a few of the details leading up to the actual event), her adventures with this new man who was still the same guy, and on to the Battle of Canary Wharf. Telling that part of the tale had brought her to tears.

But that wasn't the end of the story, of course. There was that tearful goodbye on a beach in Norway, when she had been so sure of what her Doctor had been about to say before they were cut off, seemingly never to get the answer. There were the two months she'd spent crying herself to sleep every night over the pain of losing him, and the countless months she'd spent throwing herself into her work at Torchwood trying to find any way to get back. And there was that bizarre day last week when after months of studying, tweaking and reverse engineering, the old cannons Pete's team had used to cross over to her original universe had started to show signs of life again.

As Rose was wrapping up her story, Billy looked at the monitors beside her cot. Something about the machine looked a little off, and he hadn't quite been able to figure it out until just now. "RJ, Merrick, you guys will get a kick out of this. Take a look over here at the side of this scanner." He held it up for Rose and the guys to see, and Rose let out an audible gasp.

Where the brand name should have been, in bold letters, were two words Rose had hoped were out of her life forever.

_BAD WOLF.  
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Author's caustic comments: That a good enough cliffhanger for now? Hope so. I've had Billy's wisecrack about our world floating around in my head since the day I got this idea.


	4. Story of My Life

Disclaimer 3.11: Not mine, I came over on a play-date one day and refused to go home because these guys have better toys. I promise there is a plot and we're getting there. So for the three people who have actually read this so far, hang in there.  
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_BAD WOLF._

_Of all the words in all the languages in all the universes, those two had to show up here,_ Rose thought to herself, while watching the three men standing around her hospital bed discussing the inscription as though they had stumbled upon some ancient prophecy.

"Hey, Merrick, you were on the wrong side of things for a while there. You think it's talking about you?" RJ asked the gentleman on his left.

"I wasn't bad, just cursed," Merrick responded. "It was the mask doing what it does. I knew the risks."

"Um, I think I can answer—" Rose started.

"I did kind of turn into a werewolf for a bit there when I first got my powers," RJ interrupted. "Maybe it's got something to do with that."

"Excuse me," Rose tried again, though that last statement had thrown her for a loop. Just how different was this universe?

"Well, it's not me, that's for sure. All my spell-induced misdeeds occurred before my team obtained the power in question," Billy added.

"Idiot boys!" Rose screamed. The three men turned, sheepishly, back to the girl who was sitting up in a hospital bed. "You do realize that I can hear every word you three are saying, yes?"

"Well, now that you mention it, that thought has occurred to me," RJ muttered.

"I believe the words you're looking for are 'oh, good grief.' I'd have better luck reasoning with the bloody Daleks!"

"I find that hard to believe, given what you just told us about them," Billy retorted, hoping against hope to change the subject.

"Sorry, Little Boy Blue, but I've told you my story, now it's time for you to spill your guts. Between his cursed mask, _him_ turning into a werewolf and whatever you've got in your past, this ought to be better than _EastEnders_."

"We walked right into that one, didn't we?" Merrick asked rhetorically.

"Yup," Rose replied, popping that ending "p" with particular zeal. "Somebody want to send out for chips while one of you starts this tale?"

"Don't look at me," RJ said, holding up his hands. "I run a pizza joint, I don't know anything about potato chips."

"She means French fries, RJ," Billy told him. "You live here a few years, you pick up on the lingo. There's a stand in the next block. I'll send someone from the front desk. They'll have them up here in about 15 minutes."

After placing the call, Billy turned back to Rose. "Well, chronologically, I was the first one into this situation, so I guess I'll start this show. Well, technically Merrick came first, though we'll get to that in a bit. But one thing must be clearly understood before we begin: what the three of us are about to tell you does not leave this room. Only the players involved know anything about what I am about to tell you. You are sworn to secrecy, even when you return to your world. Do you understand?"

Rose nodded, and Billy began. "It all started in a city in California called Angel Grove. The year was 1993…"  
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"Any thoughts on what we could do to track down the dimension she's gone to?" Pete asked to Jake and Mickey. It had been three hours since Rose had activated the cannon and disappeared, and they were no closer to picking up a trace of the device than they had been when they'd started.

"I have no new information since the last time you asked me that question, sir," Jake told him.

The phone on the wall rang before Pete could vent any further frustration, so he let loose a sigh and picked up the receiver. "This is Tyler."

Mickey and Jake took a short break from their search to watch Pete's reactions to the voice on the phone. He seemed to be putting on a good face, though the person on the other end would have no way of knowing that, obviously. It was, however, noticeable that every utterance from Pete's mouth ended with the word "ma'am."

Right, we'll see you within the hour, then, Ma'am." Pete hung up the phone, then grimly looked back at the duo. "Break out the red carpet and have some answers ready. President Jones is coming to pay us a visit, and she sounds miffed."  
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The story Rose had been listening to for the last few hours perhaps even more incredulous than her own would seem to anyone who hadn't experienced any of it firsthand. That these three men had, independently of each other and in separate areas over a span of fifteen years—well, in Merrick's case, 3,000 years—defended this version of earth through might, magic, and more than a little luck. "So, you find yourself in a strange lab, with a robot and a giant head in a glass tube and just decide to join up?"

"Yeah. It's not really that different from what you did," Billy told her.

"Kind of, though the Doctor could at least give me a scientific explanation for everything that was happening."

"He sounds like a really interesting guy. If he exists here, I'd love to meet him, though I suspect given everything that's happened since we became Rangers, we'd have run into him by now if such an encounter were ever going to occur."

"You never know, Billy. If there's anything the Doctor taught me, it's that anything can happen. To him, time isn't linear. Effect can precede cause, and all that sort of thing. I bet you two would find you had at least a few things in common."

"And this TARDIS thing you mentioned, sounds incredible," RJ chimed in. "I get the feeling that if Billy here ever got inside it, he'd be like a kid in a candy store."

"Affirmative," Billy told him. "The hard part would be keeping the tech boys in the lab from trying to get their greedy little mitts on it."

"Yeah," Rose agreed, a grin spreading across her face as she spoke. "The Doctor always was a little possessive about the TARDIS. There were times I'd be like, 'do you two need a moment alone or something'?'"

"Can you spare me the mental pictures, please?" Merrick asked. Then his expression changed and he turned toward Rose. "It just hit me. While we were all looking at that "bad wolf" writing on the machine earlier, you were trying to interrupt us."

"Yeah," Rose said. "I was going to say I had an idea about what it might be."

Merrick blinked, then looked back at the girl. "Is this something you've encountered before?"

Rose took a deep breath and started to answer. "It started on my first trip with the Doctor. We traveled to the end of the world, on the day the sun expanded, five billion years from now. There was this creature, who claimed to be a human but was just this…face on a frame, calling herself Cassandra, and she was trying to kill everyone who had gathered to watch the earth get burned to a crisp and one of the other visitors called it a 'classic bad wolf scenario.' Those two words, "bad wolf" seemed to turn up everywhere we went from then on. We came back to London and a kid had spray painted them on the side of the TARDIS. We went to a space station 200,000 years in the future and it was the name of a television company. In World War II the name was there, in German, as a type of bomb. Even when we got separated, the last place I saw him was a beach in Norway called Dǻrlig Ulv Stranden. You get three guesses what that translates to."

"And I suppose the first two guesses don't count," RJ joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"But on a second visit to that space station, we found out what it really was. The Doctor's archenemies, the Daleks, had taken over the station and were using it to convert human beings into more Daleks. The Doctor and this other bloke we were travelling with named Jack sent me home in the TARDIS to try and protect me, but I was having none of that. I got Mickey and my mum to help me open up the control panel. I saw something no one is ever meant to see: the heart of the TARDIS."

"There's a reason the Doctor seems to have a relationship with that machine; it really is alive. When I looked into its heart—I'm still not completely sure what happened, but from what the Doctor told me about it afterward, for a few minutes, I saw everything he sees every waking moment: the whole of time and space, every possibility. What is, what was, what could be, what must not. I _was_ the Bad Wolf_. _The Daleks were destroyed—well, almost all of them, but that's another story—and the Doctor nearly killed himself saving me from it. It's the reason he regenerated. It's something I thought was finally gone from my life for good. Guess I was wrong."

"Could be worse," Billy told her. "There's one of our friends, Tommy, who never stopped fighting. Last I heard, he was still running around in black spandex up in the Bay Area. At least here, your life might not be in danger right away."

"Somehow I doubt that. You were saying something about stars going out?"  
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Pete, Mickey and Jake rose to their feet as the doors opened on the top floor of Torchwood One as a woman in a grey suit walked in, marched straight up to them and held up her ID. "Harriet Jones, President of the Republic of Great Britain."

"Yes, we know who you are, ma'am." Every person worth their salt knew who Harriet Jones was. But that didn't stop her from offering the full and formal introduction at every opportunity. It was sort of her calling card.

"I trust you are aware of the satellite feeds from earlier today."

"Yes, ma'am. There are entire star clusters that have vanished in the last week."

"Any thoughts on what species might be behind this?"

"Uh, ma'am," Jake started, "what makes you think this was done by some sort of extra-terrestrial intelligence? For that matter, what makes you so sure there _are_ extra-terrestrial beings out there to do this sort of thing?"

"I was in Downing Street when it was blown up, and there's an act of Parliament banning my autobiography. I am quite aware of these things, thank you very much. No need to play dumb on my account. The question is, what is Torchwood doing to solve the problem?"

"We've already sent our top operative out this morning in search of help from a rather outside source," Pete informed her.

"This 'operative' wouldn't happen to be your daughter, would it, Mr. Tyler?"

"Indeed, ma'am. She's searching for the Doctor."

"The man who helped seal the void when the Cybermen last attacked?"

"The very same, ma'am."

"Well, that's something. What are we doing as far as contingencies?"

"She only left four hours ago, ma'am, we hadn't gotten that far yet."

"Then I suggest you get a move on."

"Right away, ma'am. If you have any suggestions, we'd be happy to hear them."

"Well, if my advisors have any thoughts of their own, I'll forward them on."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Right. I'll be requesting status updates frequently, so as soon as Miss Tyler returns, have her be prepared to brief the cabinet and myself."

"Straight away, ma'am."

"Very well. I shall see you later, Mr. Tyler."

As the President left, Mickey turned towards Jake and asked him, "Is she always this nosy?"

"No. She's usually worse."

"That's what I was afraid of." Turning back to the monitors, he thought to himself, _c'mon, Rose. No pressure or anything, but we really need you to pull through._  
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Far out in the reaches of space, in the remains of the constellation Arcturus, a ship was floating amongst the flotsam and jetsam, taking readings.

A shadowy figure sat in his motorized vehicle on the bridge, asking for a report from the drone in front of him.

"No life forms detected within range of neutrino emission," the robotic voice answered. "We are the only living beings in a five light-year range."

"Excellent. Now the time has come to finish assembling the ultimate weapon. We need only one more item."

"Earth."

"Precisely. Then we will activate the bomb and wipe out the very fabric of existence."

"And the Daleks will be the only beings in existence! All other life forms will be exterminated!"  
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Author's notes: And so it begins in earnest. Four wolves against the Crucible. What happens next? Well, you'll just have to wait to find out next time.


	5. Til We Ain't Strangers Anymore

Disclaimer again: If you've heard it once before, you've heard it a million times. I don't own the Rangers or Doctor Who. Disney runs reruns of the former on Saturday mornings when there's not a sporting event to disrupt it, and the BBC is still making truckloads of money off—and new episodes of—the latter. Thank you to quetzalcoatls for being reviewer number one. Glad to know I'm not the only one reading it.  
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The foursome in sickbay had made their way up to the research lab where Rose was giving Billy's staff a rundown of how her firearm worked. Billy immediately ordered the team to start working on replicating them for the team on the off-chance these Daleks that Rose had warned him about turned out to exist in their universe. The Dimensional Cannon, on the other hand, he deemed too dangerous to pick apart.

"I'm sorry, but that machine seems like more trouble than it's worth," Billy told Rose regarding the cannon.

"I can see how you arrived at that conclusion, but I've got to find him again. What's happening here isn't some isolated incident. The stars were going out in the place I came from, too. As far as I know, the Doctor is the only person in any universe who might be able to come up with a solution."

"I may not be 900 years old Rose, but I am a pretty smart guy who happens to be on the good side of quite a bit of the supernatural population in this reality. Trust me, we'll figure something out."

"That's what they all say," Rose quipped sarcastically.

"Merrick," Billy called to the older of his two compatriots, "contact Shayla and see what else she knows, or if there's anyone she suggests we can turn to for information. RJ, why don't you look over the work the lab rats are doing here. You've turned sunglasses into morphers, you can probably teach these guys a thing or two. I've got to place a couple of phone calls in the office. Rose, feel free to explore the place, though I'd imagine there's not much here that you haven't already seen."

Rose stayed in the lab for a few minutes, pointing out some of the details on the gun to the lab technicians, so they could start assembling their own version of it. She then left them to their own devices and wandered the halls, in wondering at how different this version of Torchwood was from the two she had already encountered.

She could never forget the one in her home universe. How could she? She had been directly responsible for its creation when she and the Doctor had saved Queen Victoria by dispatching a werewolf—and the Doctor still owed her that ten quid—yet had so frightened her in the process with their devil-may-care attitude over the incident that she had knighted and banished them in the same ceremony. She had then ordered the founding of the institute to combat the Doctor should he ever return. That Torchwood had been the one that royally screwed her over—pardon the pun—and caused the Battle of Canary Wharf by stupidly dragging the Cybermen into their world.

Right, so that Torchwood could take a long jump off a short pier as far as Rose was concerned. The second one she had run into was fiddling around with some ridiculously dangerous technology, as evidenced by the fact that she was here right now. But on the plus side, it had her "father" running the show and also had Mickey and Jake there to keep her sane. About the only thing it was missing was the Doctor—which, admittedly, was a hole one could drive a tank through.

And then, there was this building, which she hadn't even spent 24 hours in yet. Things appeared to be in a state of controlled chaos, which she had a healthy respect for, given how her room usually looked. This Billy Cranston fellow seemed like a decent enough bloke, for a Yank, and he certainly had the requisite experience to be running this establishment, if the story he had told her was in any way accurate. Just how many of these 'Rangers' were there, and might they all be able to help should the need arise? The stories that RJ and Merrick had added indicated that each team rose up as needed and generally consisted of five or six people. They also made it seem as though each war, when finished, was won at the cost of the powers needed to join the fight in the first place. That didn't bode well in the event of another crisis. On the other hand, it meant that there were literally dozens of people like these three who would be willing to come in and try to help if they could.

Rose took some comfort in that thought as she sat down at a computer and started looking over personnel files. Given how many secrets Billy apparently wanted to keep from the rest of the world, he really should have come up with a more secure password than _blue_wolf_. Anyone who knew anything about him would be able to hack that in a New York minute. Or was that the point? Was this just the stuff he didn't mind people seeing? There seemed so much more to these boys than even what they had revealed.  
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Billy sat staring at his computer monitor, where he was digging through every piece of research Torchwood had on the constellation of Arcturus. In discovering if there was any significance to the star group, he might be able explain why it would be targeted in the manner in which it had. The research had shown him that Arcturus was also the name of the brightest star in the constellation; that it came from a Greek name meaning "guardian of the north." And that that phrase "guardian of the north" brought up a red flag in Torchwood's files, because it translated into another word on the Institute's watchlist: _Kasterborous_.

_Hmm, that's something else to ask Rose about later_, Billy thought to himself. He saved those files to his hard drive and next looked up anything they had on these so-called "Daleks." He laughed as the image of a four foot-tall pepper shaker came up on the screen. _So that's it? What's so frightening about this?_

As he read on, he realized just how bad it was. The creation of a mad scientist named Davros, these creatures were actually sinister amoeba-looking things who moved about in these metal shells that functioned as tanks and sought the destruction of all other living beings. The files mentioned they came from the planet Skaro in another galaxy and feared only one thing: the Doctor.

"Hmm. Maybe he does exist in this reality after all," Billy thought out loud, though no one was in the room to hear him. "Better let the gang know about this one."  
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Back on Pete's World, Mickey and Jake were still hard at work on tracking down just what world Rose had zapped herself to.

"Well, if nothing else, at least we know she's on another version of Earth, right?" Mickey asked.

"That's true," Jake responded. "But that doesn't really narrow the search down much. We know what needle to look for, but the haystack's still got trillions of straws."

"How did we not think to record the settings on that bloody cannon before she hit the button?"

"Yeah, not our finest hour, I'll give you that."

"And now all we're doing is sitting here wasting energy trying to track down your proverbial needle."

"Hold on a minute," Jake told him, the gears starting to turn in his mind. "Energy, that's it. The device has its own energy signature! We can trace that."

"You're kidding me, right?"

"Of course not. We find the cannon, we find Rose."

"No, I mean it honestly took us eight hours to think of a solution that simple?"

"Hey, you can't see the forest for the trees sometimes, can you?"

"Alright, let's go down to the lab and grab another cannon. We'll need to test this."

"Time to save the world again, eh, Mick?"

"Yeah, but I'd rather be doing it with that big yellow truck."  
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Rose had left the computer awhile ago and wandered up to the roof, where she was surprised to find Merrick sitting against the air conditioning unit, playing a tune on a wooden flute. It was a modern tune he had heard late one night while bartending when he'd accidentally turned the radio dial to one of those soft rock/adult contemporary stations, but it had seemed to speak to him, and as Rose listened, she remembered the words to that particular song, and was fighting back tears before he finished the first verse.

"That was beautiful," Rose told him when he had finished.

Merrick turned around, startled. "Didn't think anyone was listening."

"You have a gift, there." She walked over to the man and sat down next to him.

"I usually play it up on the Animarium. Shayla's always up there, and it's a fun way to pass the time while watching over the zords. It seems to calm them down when things are getting out of hand."

"I'm sorry," Rose explained, wiping a stray tear from her cheek and brushing a hair back at the same time. "It's just that the lyrics to that one hit a little close to home."

"You really miss this Doctor fellow, don't you?"

"I'm risking my life crossing between multiple worlds to find him, so I guess so, yeah."

"I wasn't clear, my mistake. I meant, you _love_ him."

"I really do. I don't know if it would amount to anything if I ever do get him back, but I do."

"If it's any consolation, I know the feeling."

"You mean that princess, Shayla was it?"

"Yes."

"Then just grow up and tell her already!"

"It's a lot more complicated than that."

"I don't care if it's complicated or if she already knows. It really does need saying."

"I can't, though. I am sworn to protect her, and I already broke that vow once. If anything happened to her, I would never forgive myself."

"You mentioned the mask before. What did it do to you?"

"The mask contained an evil spirit, calling itself Zen-aku. It allowed me to wipe out most of the Orgs who were attacking us, but at the cost of my sanity. I was losing control, so I begged my teammates to put me out of my misery before I destroyed them. I was locked away for 3,000 years.

"Then I was freed in the middle of another war, but Zen-aku was still in control. I repeatedly attacked the new Rangers, with no memory of who I was. It took several battles, but finally the other Rangers defeated me and, in so doing, destroyed the mask. I was finally me again, but I couldn't look any of them in the face. I had tried to destroy the Rangers, Shayla, what was left of my home. I didn't deserve to call any of them my friends, let alone…"

"So you keep silent out of guilt?" Rose asked as she processed this information.

"Yes."

"And what you're doing here, your fighting alongside the rest of your team, it's all about redemption, isn't it?"

"Exactly. I have to prove to myself that I'm not the same person who attacked them, that Zen-aku is really gone."

"Well," Rose said, laying a hand on his shoulder, "sure seems like he's gone to me."

"Thanks," he said, reaching his hand up to meet hers before standing up. "I didn't learn anything new on the Animarium, looks like we're stuck with whatever you already know and whatever Billy can dig up in the archives." He held out his hand to pull her up. "You ready to head back inside?"

"Absolutely." The two walked back towards the door, their spirits a tad lighter.  
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Back in space, the _Crucible_ floated towards its next target.

"How much longer until we are within range of the Earth?"

"Four hours," came the mechanical reply.

"Excellent," the emaciated leader told the creature. "At long last, everything will be in place."  
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Author's notes: I didn't include lyrics for copyright reasons, but the song Merrick was playing was "By Heart" by Jim Brickman. For you Rose/Ten shippers out there, listen to the lyrics, create your own songfic or tribute video and thank me later.

Then there's the matter of how Arcturus = Kasterborous, the home constellation of the Doctor's home planet. If anyone's curious how I came to that decision, just review and I'll respond with the etymological reasons why I came to that conclusion.  
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	6. Welcome to Wherever You Are

Disclaimer: Yeah, these guys still aren't mine, and apparently the Ranger half is back in the hands of Haim Saban, the über-pro-Israeli guy who brought it stateside in the first place. Who knows what that means for the rest of us?  
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Billy was thoroughly engrossed in Torchwood's archives regarding Rose's mysterious "Doctor" that he hadn't noticed the knock on his door. In fact, he hadn't noticed it the first four times, so finally his attention was commandeered by Merrick threatening to piece the remnants of his mask together again if he didn't open up. Yes, he was almost certainly joking, but when the guy making the pseudo-threat was a couple of millennia his senior, Billy didn't want to take any chances. He opened the door and found Merrick and Rose waiting on the other side.

"So, find anything interesting?" Billy asked the two.

"Not really," Merrick replied.

"Spent part of it getting better acquainted, but that's about it," Rose answered. "Obviously you had better luck."

"In a way," Billy said, as he sat back down at the computer and gestured to the two of them to have a seat as well. He then pressed a button on the desk phone, activating the intercom.

"RJ," he called into the speaker.

"You rang, Billy?" RJ responded from the lab.

"How're things coming along down there?"

"This place continues to weird me out, but I have to hand it to you, these technicians you've got are nothing if not efficient. They should have a prototype ready to test in about half an hour."

"Great. Why don't you come up here to the top floor, I've found a couple of things I want to share with the rest of the class."

"On my way."  
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"So," RJ started as soon as he came in the door, "what are these big, important things you wanted to share?"

"Well, I've been looking up Arcturus, that constellation that vanished, right?"

"You said something about stars going out," RJ replied, "these would be the stars in question, then?"

"Affirmative. It seems they've got a connection to the good Doctor Rose has been telling us about."

"What do you mean?" Rose inquired of the genius.

"Did the Doctor ever tell you where he came from?"

"Never, just that his home was destroyed in a war with the Daleks."

"Well, it seems his home world was in the middle of Arcturus. And if the planet still existed in our reality, then that would make those Daleks the prime suspect."

"Those bloody pepper pots!" Rose exclaimed. "Why can't they ever stay dead?"

"Because then all you could do is go through their clothes and look for loose change," Merrick suggested. When the others all stared at him, he blushed slightly and replied, "I had to sit through 'The Princess Bride' once after losing a bet with Danny."

"Inconceivable!" Billy exclaimed, trying to stifle a laugh.

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it does," RJ responded, as the four of them lost it.

"And call it," Rose said looking at her watch, which was amazingly still functioning despite having bridged the gap between universes. "Time of death for that joke…wait a second, my watch says it's only 4:30, but that clock on the wall there says it's nearly 9:00. What's going on?"

"What time did you make the leap over here?" Billy asked.

"About 8:00 this morning," Rose told him. "Why?"

"It was almost 11:00 when you arrived," Billy answered. "It's possible that time moves faster in our world than it does in yours."

"More than possible, since I've seen it before," Rose responded. "Time in my original universe moved slower than the one I just came from."

"Well, that answers that question."

"It does," RJ said, "but that still leaves us with giant pepper shakers who apparently blew up a constellation, and could very well be heading our way as we speak. What do we do about that?"

"We keep the night shift in the lab going making as many copies of that gun as we can, and in the meantime, the rest of us get some sleep," Billy said.

"I think I could talk Shayla into letting you all stay up on the Animarium for the night," Merrick offered. It's quiet and undetectable, even from your scanners, Billy."

"I was rather curious as to how you guys got here. So how do we organize transportation?"

"Just take my hand."  
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"Alright, I think we've got a lock on it," Jake called over to Mickey, who was sitting at another monitor where they had been scanning for Rose's Dimensional Cannon for the last two hours.

"Better make sure, though," Mickey responded. "Don't want to end up splitting the gang up even further, do we?"

"Point taken, but we won't know until we send someone there, will we?"

"Alright. So do you wanna flip for it, or what?"

"Nah, she was your friend first, you go get her."

"Touching, mate. Really."

"'Sides, someone's got to explain things to Pete, and I've known him longer, I can talk him down if it comes to that."

"Talk me down from what?" Pete Tyler asked as he walked up behind the two men.

"Should have seen that coming," Jake muttered under his breath.

"We think we've found the dimension Rose jumped to," Mickey answered, "and I lost the toss, so I'm going in after her."

"You sure about this?" Pete asked him.

"Absolutely, sir."

Pete stepped over to Mickey and grasped his upper arm for a second. "Then Godspeed, man. Good luck."

"Right, then. Get me another one of those guns. And something to track me with."  
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RJ had been up on the Animarium earlier that day, so he had some idea what to expect. For Billy and Rose, however, their new surroundings came as a complete shock. "I take it we're not in Kansas anymore," was Rose's initial response when she could finally speak.

"Prodigious," was Billy's equally starstruck response.

"Welcome to the Animarium," Princess Shayla spoke, greeting her new guests. "The pack has finally assembled."

"I don't know about the rest of you," Rose spoke up, "but I've had enough wolf references to last me a lifetime."

"You get used to it eventually," RJ told her.

"Princess," Merrick started, "the hour is late and I thought that, given the uncertain nature of the threat, the rest of the team might be better off finding shelter here."

"Of course, you are all welcome for as long as necessary," Shayla told the pack.

"Thank you, uh, your highness?" Billy replied.

"Shayla, and it is no trouble at all. Merrick will show you all to the sleeping quarters, while I prepare some food."

"That's not really necessary—" Billy started.

"Nonsense. You are our guests. In ancient times, the Animarians considered hospitality one of our most important responsibilities. Now go on, and settle in. I will call you back shortly."

"Well, then, RJ, you know where you're going," Merrick addressed the group. "Billy, Rose, walk this way." He headed off in the direction of the cave-like dormitory with a most unusual gait, eerily reminiscent of Igor in _Young Frankenstein_. Looking at each other, Billy and Rose shrugged and decided to play along, matching his motions and posture exactly.  
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Back aboard the _Crucible_, Davros was busy plotting. It was what he was always doing, it seemed. This plan had been years in the making, after seeing his once mighty Dalek empire decimated in the final Time War, the only consolation he had been able to take was that his nemeses, the Time Lords, had been wiped out as well. However, nothing was ever that simple.

When the Doctor, horrified at what his people had become in their desire to finish the war had become, had utilized his ultimate weapon, he believed that everyone on both sides had been trapped within that weapon's effect, locking Time Lord and Dalek alike in The Moment, forced to relive the final day of the battle over and over, an unending punishment for all caught in its wake, but sealing off the rest of the universe from their insanity. But in addition to the Doctor himself, a group of four Daleks, the so-called Cult of Skaro, had also escaped the clutches of The Moment.

After an attempt to help evolution along led to infighting, the four were reduced to one, named Caan. The last Dalek in all of existence took it upon himself to figure out a way to free his creator, flinging himself into the barrier that surrounded the Time War, eventually succeeding in freeing Davros, though at the cost of frying his mind beyond all recognition. Caan now sat in his obliterated tank, babbling incoherently most of the time. If he had been any other being in the universe—or any other Dalek, for that matter—he would have been put out of his misery long ago. But Davros felt he owed it to this one of his creations, who had given so much of itself to pull him out of that version of hell, to keep him around to see his latest plan come to fruition, whether the thing could appreciate what it was seeing or not.

"Soon we will be in position, my friend. The earth will complete the weapon, and once that is in place, not even the Doctor will be able to stop us. We shall sit back, and watch as the Daleks assume their rightful place as the only beings in all of existence."

Dalek Caan gurgled in what one would guess was approval, though as usual, it didn't sound like anything approaching an intelligent thought.  
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The five humans currently inhabiting the Animarium were gathered around a table that sat by what looked like a wishing well from a fairy tale, a few leftovers still sitting on the table. _Fish and chips it certainly wasn't, _Rose thought,_ but it beats the daylights out of mum's nut loaf_. A smirk drifted across her face as she thought back to that Christmas she'd spent at home with the Doctor when he'd tried to down her mother's cooking—amid much laughter and much less success.

"Something you want to share with the rest of the class?" RJ asked her.

"Not exactly," she responded. "More like the remembrance of things past."

"So, Shayla," Billy started to ask, "I just want to make sure we've got all the information we can before we plot our next move. Is there anything you know about the situation that you haven't told Merrick or the rest of us?"

"It was said among the elders of Animaria shortly before their last battle that one day a terrible darkness would threaten the universe and a pack of wolves would unite to stop its advance."

"And with stars being wiped out of existence, you believe that that darkness is approaching now?" Rose asked.

"Exactly. And you four, by extension, are the wolves they spoke of."

"Okay, these three each used some sort of magical power that was related to a wolf," Rose responded. "I get that. But I'm no wolf, it was just a name that was…"

"You may not be the 'Bad Wolf' anymore, but we have a saying in this spandex fraternity of ours," Merrick told her, "Once a Ranger, always a Ranger."

"I wasn't a Ranger either, though."

"No, but the point is that it's always a part of you, whatever else happens."

"And wherever this adventure takes us," Billy added, "you're one of us now."

"Welcome to the club, we've got jackets and everything," RJ finished.

"Well, when you put it like that," Rose told the new men in her life, "how can a girl say no?"  
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Back on the ground, the lab technicians in Torchwood were working overtime, making sure that this new gun was working as they had been told it was designed to. They were thoroughly engrossed in this work, so they were a little surprised when the rift monitor started going off for the second time that day. A handful of the graveyard shift security team were dispatched to the roof, where they were waiting when the rift opened and Mickey Smith came flying out. His landing was a little more graceful than Rose's had been, not that falling out of the sky and landing on concrete can ever be described as graceful, but he at least landed on his feet. He looked up from his landing to find four guns trained on him.

"Um, take me to your leader?" he asked.  
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	7. More Than We Bargained For

Disclaimer/Author ramblings: BBC owns Doctor Who and its characters; Haim Saban owns the Rangers and their characters. I admit that I'm not nearly as up on old school Who as I should be. I plead that I was six years old when Seven and Ace had their last on-screen adventures and I live in the States, so that means that "Rose" (the first Nine episode) was my jumping on point. That means I'm more attached/devoted to those characters (you always remember your first, right?) That being said, I finally got to see "The Five Doctors" in its entirety last night, and it was _fantastic_. Watching what happened to President Borusa, it seemed like something Steven Spielberg would do to an Indiana Jones villain. You know, should there be a fifth movie somewhere down the line (God forbid). Alright. End of lecture, there will be a quiz on that material. I borrowed a line from "The Stolen Earth." Come on, you knew by now that it was coming.  
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"Um, take me to your leader?" Mickey asked to the guards with guns pointed at him. _Blimey, that was as cliché as it gets, wasn't it?_

"Keep your hands where we can see 'em!" one of the men shouted. Mickey obliged as calmly as possible.

"Alright, but how long do you think my neck can hold this thing up by itself?" he joked, hoping to lighten the mood. It didn't work.

"Confiscate the weapon, and take him to the dunk tank for questioning."

_Well, that can't be good_, Mickey thought to himself as two of the guards grabbed his gun and the Dimensional Cannon from around his neck. _Times like this I'm glad the Doc's not around. 'Mickey the Idiot' sounds spot on just now._  
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Rose was taking stock of the room she had been given for the night when there was a knock on the door. She opened it to find Princess Shayla on the other side, holding a pitcher of water. "We don't have much in the way of hot beverages up here, but I thought, in case you were thirsty…"

"Thank you, but I'm fine, really," Rose told her. "To tell you the truth I just want to get through whatever this thing is and get back home."

"The others tell me that home is still a long way off for you."

"About as far as it possibly could be. You understand, right? I mean, your home's a couple miles up in the sky. My home's not even in this universe!"

"Well, I am sure you will find it again in time. Do you require anything else?"

"To be honest, wasn't expecting to be gone this long. I don't suppose there's somewhere I can get a change of clothes for the morning?"

"Well, I'm not sure if they'd fit, but Taylor keeps a few things up here for when she's on leave from the Air Force. They'll probably be on the large side for you."

"It'll have to do, I guess. Is it always this crazy around here?"

"No. This is the busiest it has been since the Orgs were defeated."

"Hmm, the fight that brought Merrick back to you."

"Yes," Shayla said, her eyes drifting away. I can't say I knew many details of the battle; I sort of slept through a lot of it."

"How?"

"This island is all that remains of an ancient kingdom. I was appointed as its guardian and when the battle was at its most dire, the elders sent the island and myself into the sky, as far away as they could to protect what remained. I was put into a deep sleep, like something out of a fairy tale, to be awakened when it came time to defend the island again. A few months before the Orgs began attacking in earnest, Taylor showed up, then the others each came in turn."

"But the important thing is that you all won, right?"

"Yes. But there will always be more fights that need fighting. Such as the one you are now involved in."

"True. But not every adventure I had with the Doctor was life and death. There were the amazing and wonderful bits in between, just having fun, watching historical events. I've seen the end of the world, but I've also seen coronations, an Olympic games that hasn't happened yet—did you know there's a planet called Barcelona where the dogs have no noses?"

"Really? How do they smell?"

"Awful." The two ladies both giggled over that joke, which never seems to get old no matter how many times you've heard it before.

"With any luck, Rose, you will find your way back to him when this is over. But even if that doesn't happen, do not be worried that your adventure will be over as well. If I have learned anything in 3,000 years, it is that life is the greatest adventure of all."

"Thanks. Well, it's getting late. I guess I'll see you in the morning."

"Yes, I shall leave a change of garments at the door for you. Good night."

"Good night." Rose shut the door and for the first time, the total sum of the day's events hit her like a ton of bricks. She was separated from everyone now, for who knew how long, and the four people on this island in the sky were the only ones who had any clue what she was or what they might be facing. They were trying their hardest to make her feel welcome, but Rose still felt more alone than at any time since Canary Wharf. What if she never made it back? Forget the Doctor for a second, what if she couldn't even make it back to Pete's world and her mum? Could she really see herself picking up and starting all over again with these guys? These thoughts kept rolling around in her mind during a night's sleep that was anything but restful.  
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Near the other end of the complex, Billy and RJ were sitting outside their rooms talking with each other. Billy was attempting to figure out why this island they were on was defying all known laws of physics by floating in the sky, but RJ, while also technologically literate, had long since given up trying to figure it out. "Can we change the subject, please?" RJ finally asked.

"Why not?" Billy answered. "It's not like we'll figure it out tonight, anyway. So what do you want to talk about?"

"What are we doing here?"

"We came here because Merrick offered to let us stay here."

"No, I mean, what are we _doing_ here? I just got out of the save-the-world business. I was just settling back into something resembling a normal life. You've got a team down there that's no doubt wondering what you're doing running around with people like us when you've got a dire situation staring you in the face. Rose isn't even from this _reality_. What are we doing?"

"We're doing what needs doing. You heard Shayla earlier. Apparently the four of us are needed to combat this threat, whatever it is. And whether it's Rita, Dai Shi, or a ship full of Daleks, I am not going to sit on the sidelines when I have an opportunity to get out there and fight! Never again!"

"Sorry, man. Didn't mean to hit a nerve there."

"I know. But you weren't there. You didn't know what it was like, having to stand there, idly by in the background, watching your friends risk their lives day in and day out, knowing you had volunteered to step down, thinking it would be okay, that you could accept being a backup. It got so bad towards the end that I couldn't even bring myself to watch on the monitors. Yes, I had other problems to deal with, but being a spectator was driving me up the walls. That's why I didn't come back to Earth right away."

"I hadn't heard that part. What little I've heard about you came secondhand from guys who knew Tommy or Adam or some of your friends. They said you had met someone special there."

"They weren't lying. Her name was Cestria, and she helped me accept the decision I had made and hammered it into my head that what I was doing behind the scenes was still valuable."

"Wouldn't think you'd need telling that."

"Sometimes you need someone to hit you over the head and hold up a sign. And that's exactly what Cestria did. She was an amazing person."

"_Was?"_

"Well, still is. It was my own fault. When I get wrapped up with solving a problem, I really get wrapped up in it. I would disappear into the lab for weeks at a time, shut myself off from the world around me, oblivious to everything, even her. This went on for a few years until eventually she couldn't take it anymore. She told me she deserved better, and I told her she was right. I realized I couldn't give her what she needed and let her go. With her gone, there was nothing really keeping me there, and homesickness finally got the better of me. So I called Andros and got a ride back to Earth."

"If you had to do it over again, would you?"

"Part of my recovery out there was learning to stop dwelling on the past. What's done is done. The important thing is that I'm here now, and we've got a universe to save."

Before RJ could respond, Billy's cell phone sounded off, putting an end to the conversation. "What happened?" Billy asked the voice on the other end. "Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can." Hanging up, he turned to RJ and asked, "Where's Merrick so I can ask how to get back down to the ground?"

As if on cue, the Lunar Wolf opened his door. "You called?"

"Actually, my staff did. Someone else just came through the rift, and they had a gun like Rose's on them. You two up for meeting another stranger?"

"Why not?"  
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The three men reappeared in the entrance of Torchwood One and were quickly escorted to the brig, where they were greeted by an uninvited guest that seemed even less thrilled to be there than could be expected, given the lateness of the hour.

"State your name, rank, and why did the chicken cross the road," Billy asked, trying to have some fun with the situation.

"Mickey Smith, field agent for Torchwood One, and to show the possum how it's done."

"Well, you get points for originality. I'm Billy Cranston, head of Torchwood One. This is Merrick Balliton and Robert James. Let me guess, you're not from around here, are you?"

"No, I'm not. 'Ave you seen a blonde girl come through here a few hours ago, went by the name of Rose Tyler?"

"As a matter of fact, we have. She had a rough landing, but she's doing well. We found her a place to stay for the night. She was carrying a gun just like that, so I'm assuming you work with her, yes?"

"Got that right. We've spent the last ten hours trying to track her down once she fired that cannon, and we finally traced it to this universe. Where is she?"

"That's a little hard to explain, but trust me when I tell you that she is safe."

"Forgive me if I'm less than impressed by that statement."

Yeah, I had a feeling that might be the case. Merrick, you mind escorting Mr. Smith 'upstairs' while RJ and I head to the lab?"

"Alright. Mickey, follow me."

Mickey thought this day couldn't get any weirder as he followed Merrick into the lift and it started going up to the top floor. He had no idea how wrong he was until Merrick grabbed his hand and the two disappeared in a flash of light.  
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RJ and Billy were looking over the ballistics report on the guns the lab had replicated from Rose's original. "Yeah," RJ said, "keep out of reach of small children. Or pretty much anybody, for that matter."

"I hear that," Billy muttered, staring at the numbers and marveling at the raw power that seemed to be concentrated in each shot. "Well, it appears we've got one for each of us now, but let's try to only use them when necessary."

"Alright, but how long do you think we've got to figure out how to use them?"

Before RJ could get an answer to his question, there was a loud rumbling sound and the building started shaking uncontrollably. "Earthquake?" RJ asked.

"Negative," Billy responded. "We're nowhere near any fault lines."

"Then what in the world was that?"

"A serious problem." Billy ran out of the lab and looked out the window. Where a typical night sky had been just a few moments ago, the sky now looked like nothing he had ever seen, which was no small feat in itself. The horizon was littered with a couple dozen planets none of those watching had ever seen before.  
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On the Animarium, Rose awoke with a start at the tremors. She ran out of her room and looked up at the same sky the boys on the surface were seeing. Mickey and Merrick stumbled over towards her, though this was hardly the moment for pleasantries. "What's going on here?" Mickey asked.

"Right, now we're in trouble," Rose told him, still staring at the sky, "and it's only just beginning."  
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Author's caustic comments: Hey, I could have kept dragging this out, but we needed to move on at some point, right? Also, yay, my reviewers have doubled! Now I have to do something I'm not good at: writing action sequences. I apologize in advance.


	8. Heaven Help Us All

Disclaimer: I haven't won the lottery in…well, ever, actually, so I don't own Doctor Who, the Power Rangers, or any ideas associated with either of them. We're borrowing a few moments from 'The Stolen Earth' because it needs to be done.  
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Looking up at the sky, RJ was reminded of the old line about people joining the navy to see the world. _I'm pretty sure this would not be in the brochure_, he thought to himself. "What do we do now, Billy?"

"We get everybody up and armed. Call Merrick, tell him to let Wes and Eric know if they haven't figured it out for themselves already. He'll know what I'm talking about. Then meet me on the roof. I'm going to grab our new weapons. No time like the present to find out just how well they work."

"So let it be written," RJ joked as he pulled out his phone and dialed up the number while Billy raced back into the lab.

RJ waited impatiently as the phone rang twice before Merrick picked up. "You rang?"

"Have you looked up lately?"  
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"We're seeing the same thing you are."

"Yeah, Billy's checking on something in the lab, then we're grabbing the big guns and heading up to the roof. Think you could beam us up from there?"

"Actually, it sounds like it may be time for us to head back down. You'll need all the help you can get."

"Alright, then come on down to Billy's office. We'll see you there in five."

"So let it be done," Merrick hung up and turned back to Rose and Mickey, who were having a mini-reunion. "Guess you'd better throw that jacket back on, Rose. We're heading back down early."

"All of us?" Rose asked.

"Yes," Merrick responded. "RJ and Billy are done working on copying your firearms. It appears they're going to be baptized by fire."

"That figures," Mickey said. "Never a dull moment around this one, is there?" he went on, gesturing at Rose.

"Do you mind?" Rose asked in jest. "I prefer the term 'jeopardy-friendly.'"

"You would," Mickey joked, giving her a friendly punch in the arm.

"Easy you two," Merrick told them. "I've just got to get word to a couple of friends back in America and we'll go." He reached for his phone again and dialed the Silver Guardians headquarters. Not surprisingly, he got a busy signal. Hanging up, he tried Wes' cell and got the same problem. Eric's number completed the natural hat trick, with a similar result.

"They must be discussing the issue with each other," he mused aloud. "Well, at least they're aware something's up, then."

"Right, then," Mickey answered. "You gonna do the whole Spock 'beam us down' thing again or what?"

"Exactly. Grab on."  
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The threesome materialized on the top floor of Torchwood One, where Billy and RJ were coming through the lift doors, each brandishing one of the really big guns the lab had spent the day putting together. Each of them had a matching gun strapped around their backs, which made getting out of the lift a chore (or a hilarious idea for an internet video, depending on one's perspective). "Welcome again," Billy said, handing the gun in his hands over to Mickey. "I believe these were yours."

"Thanks, mate," Mickey replied, while RJ handed one of his guns to Rose. "So, someone finally wanna let me in on what's goin' on 'ere?"

"Billy here's the head of Torchwood in this world, and these other two blokes are old friends of his who've come to help," Rose explained.

"Alright," Mickey said, buying the premise for the moment. Pointing at Merrick, he continued. "But what's up with Ranger Rick here and his flippin' Garden of Eden in mid-air?"

RJ unsuccessfully tried to stifle a snort at Mickey's unintentional joke.

"Again," Billy told him, "look up and tell me if that's really the biggest thing we need to worry about right now."

"Point taken," Mickey admitted. "So, what do we do?"

"We figure out what we know, and plan our next move from there," RJ told him.

"Affirmative," Billy said, as a knock at the door was swiftly revealed to be the fifth firearm brought up from the lab. "So everybody grab a computer and start researching. We need to know what's happened, where the heck we are, and what in the universe we seem to be up against."  
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The research lab several floors below the roof was also in a state of panic. As soon as the shaking had stopped, a couple of the technicians had ventured out of the room and seen what had happened to their surroundings, what with the moon nowhere in sight and a couple dozen other celestial bodies suddenly within their view. A couple of the newer employees had run for their lives. Another one was holed up in a closet, seriously considering taking up alcoholism as his next career move. While the "all hands on deck" call had gone out, most of the staff was still trying to fight their way through the panic in the streets to get to the skyscraper. As a result, everyone was running around in chaos and so only the monitors were picking up the scrambled, incoming message.  
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Back upstairs, Mickey and the Pack were pouring through books, internet sites, and Torchwood's archives, trying to come up with anything that might provide an answer or two to the situation at hand. Rose was occasionally stealing glances up at the sky, trying to see if she recognized any of the other planets that had appeared with them. But for all her travels in time and space, none of the other worlds that they could see clearly rang any bells with her, so she would turn back to the book in her hand and scan for anything. Merrick was wracking his brain trying to see if anything from his days defending a long-fallen kingdom 3,000 years prior would provide a clue, but nothing seemed to fit. Mickey and Billy were bulldozing their way through the Torchwood archives online, Mickey to see if there was anything from his universe that he could add to the information, and Billy to make sure that he hadn't overlooked anything on his first pass earlier that day.

As a result, RJ was the only one in the building who had an eye on the scanners and picked up the garbled transmission that was coming through to the lab, as well as anyone with a radio. "Guys, you might want to take a listen to this."

The other four people in the room dropped what they were doing and converged on the radio. No one could make sense of the message, but everyone sensed that it was important.

"Let's run a trace on that signal, figure out where it's coming from," Billy ordered. "Mickey, you mind doing that while I try to decipher it?"

"On it, boss," Mickey responded. "This tin dog is finally going to get to show off all his tricks." The two men sat at their keyboards and the hands started flying, Mickey hacking into the few satellites that had been dragged along with the Earth trying to pinpoint the source of the transmission, while Billy was attempting to manipulate the wavelengths of the transmission itself so it could be understood.

Mickey was successful first. "It seems that the planet's been pulled out of its orbit into a system with 26 other worlds. The signal's comin' from the center of the system, whatever's holdin' this thing together."

"Alright, since we can pinpoint it," Billy said, "we should be able to filter it. Buffering…now!"

The garbled noise soon became understandable, and the five souls in the room quickly wished that it wasn't.

"_EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"_  
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The inhabitants of London were panicking, racing through the streets, trying to either find their loved ones or run for their lives. Had been ever since the earth had been moved and found itself surrounded by planets they had never heard of before, let alone seen. And now, they had further reason to run in terror as the first waves of Daleks arrived to start rounding up their newest victims.

"All humans will submit to the Daleks for inspection," one of the drones spouted at the terrified civilians. "Those deemed inferior will be exterminated!"

One woman watching this decided to be bold in the face of danger. "And if we refuse?"

The Dalek turned and fired its laser at the woman, and she fell to the ground, dead instantly. "That is not an option. All hail the Daleks!"

On a nearby street, an elderly gentleman was hiding behind a car, loading a paintball gun. His granddaughter was pleading with him to go back inside. "What do think you're gonna be able to do, anyway?"

"Donna, don't you get it?" Wilfred Mott replied. Those things only have one eye. One shot from this thing'll blind 'em, won't it? Then they're useless."

"Just get back inside, they haven't seen us yet!"

On cue, a Dalek turned its head toward the car. Wilfred stood up and fired a shot. The pellet hit its mark, landing right in the middle of the Dalek's optical sensors. It stopped in its tracks for a moment, and for a moment, it looked like Wilfred's logic was correct. But then the sensor brightened, and burned off the paint. Within a few seconds, it was as though it had never been hit in the first place.

"My sight is not hindered," the Dalek ranted. "Prepare to be exterminated!"

Before the Dalek could follow through on its threat, however, another blast hit it from behind, and the top of its tank exploded in a ball of flame. The flames quickly died down, revealing Rose, Merrick and RJ, each with their guns still pointed at the creature. "Sorry to cut it so close, sir," Rose addressed Wilfred, who was grinning from ear to ear over the sheer joy of not being dead yet.

"Wanna swap?" he jokingly asked her, holding up his paintball gun.  
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Back at Torchwood, Mickey was printing out anything he could find on the Daleks and adding in what little he could remember from his lone encounter with them in the Battle of Canary Wharf. Billy was communicating with the team at Torchwood Three in Cardiff, to see if his old boss Dr. Sato had any ideas to add. She had handed him over to another acquaintance of hers: some guy named Jack Harkness. "So, Mr. Harkness," he started.

"It's Captain Harkness. You want to call me 'mister,' you've got to buy me a drink first."

"Captain, now is not the time."

"What, I'm not allowed to say hello?"

"I don't know whether to be flattered or insulted. In the meantime, the earth is under attack by a fleet of Daleks. You got any ideas?"

"I've had a few ideas, and they all involve running as far away as possible."

"You're a big help," Billy told him sarcastically.

"Just kidding," Jack told him. "I've seen way too much of those pepper pots over the years. Modified a couple of weapons that can take them out one at a time, but we're going to have to have to come up with something bigger to go after the mothership."

"I'm all ears."

"If you want to see for yourself, we can have you over here in two minutes."

"Seriously?"

"Transmat system we scavenged off a Sontaran ship last year."

"You've got a teleportation device?"

"Well, technically, it's a matter transporter, but call it whatever you want to. I'll be over in a minute, and then you can see it for yourself."

"Okay. We'll see you then." Billy hung up and turned to Mickey, who had stopped everything he was doing as soon as he heard the name "Harkness." "Cap'n Jack?" he asked Billy, raising an eyebrow.

"You ran into him in your world?"

"Our original one, actually. He was this bloke Rose and the Doctor picked up on a trip to World War Two. World class flirt, he is. I met him once when they stopped in Cardiff. But the next time I saw Rose, he was gone, and they never told me what happened to him."

"Well, it would seem that he's alive and well in our world, working at Torchwood Three. And he's dropping in here to pick us up in…" Jack suddenly appeared in the middle of the room. "Right about now, actually."  
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Author's notes: I pull ideas and lines from all over the place, and I freely admit it. In the interest of jokes, I've quoted _Princess Bride, Monty Python, The Ten Commandments,_ and there will surely be more to come before we're done.


	9. We Weren't Born to Follow

_Disclaimer, version 'I've lost track which number this one is':_ Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends. No, seriously. Doctor Who has been around in one form or another since 1962, Power Rangers since 1993. Neither are mine, they're just fun to work with.

_Disclaimer, part deux_: I've been stuck trying to figure out where I wanted this one to go for about a week (as evidenced by the fact that it's been six days since I put up the last part), and I'm still not happy with it. I know where I want to get to, I just hadn't figured out a good way to get there.  
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"… right about now, actually," Billy finished saying as Captain Jack Harkness materialized on the top floor of Torchwood One. Mickey looked at this incarnation of Jack for the first time. He didn't seem terribly different from the previous version he had encountered. A few extra grey hairs, and he was wearing an old RAF jacket, but otherwise, he seemed like the same guy he had seen that one time in Cardiff.

"So you're Jack," Billy inquired of the new addition to the room.

"You were expecting someone else? Now I'm insulted," Jack replied.

"Oi, don't even start, Captain Flash," Mickey told him. "Now's not the time."

"How'd you know I'm a captain?" Jack asked Mickey.

"We really don't have time for this," Billy reiterated, rolling his eyes in the direction of the windows. You said we needed a plan to go after the 'mothership,' as you called it. Any ideas?"

"Yes. Awhile ago, we were working a case in Croydon when I came across a reporter there, Sarah Jane Smith. She was talking about this guy she'd traveled with years ago, a doctor of some sort." Billy and Mickey both raised an eyebrow at that, but let Jack continue. "She had this ridiculously advanced computer in her home; the thing was practically sentient. She even gave it a name, called it 'Mr. Smith.' Anyhow, she had been using it to keep an eye on anything unusual in her area, and on all of us. I'm surprised you haven't run into her."

"I've been busy," Billy deadpanned.

"Getting back to the point, she gave my team these blueprints she had from her time travelling with that doctor fellow. The design is for a powerful explosive device called a warp star. In theory, a device this powerful could be used to wipe the entire planet off the map."

"Or something as big as a planet," Mickey finished.

"Exactly," Jack said, with one of those ridiculously cheeky grins plastered on his face.

"So, your plan is to blow up the ship?" Billy asked.

"You got a problem with that?" Jack responded.

"I can think of a couple of things wrong with that," Billy told him.

"Such as?" Mickey asked.

"Even assuming that it works," Billy started, "how would we then get back? And I don't mean back from the ship, I mean how do we get the planet back where it's supposed to be?"

"Yeah, that could be a problem," Mickey responded.

"Hey, I didn't say it was perfect," Jack said, defending his plan, "but these guys do not respond to logic. I've seen what the Daleks do. You cannot reason with them. You can only hope to destroy them before they destroy you."

Billy took a deep breath and considered this for a moment, two warring mantras dueling in his head. Torchwood had been founded to do whatever was necessary to protect the empire. Ethics were nice, but could be chucked out the window for the greater good. Then there was that oath he took in 1993 that said you never escalate a conflict unless you have no other choice. Eventually, his past won out over his present. "Jack, there's got to be some other way, and I'm not giving up on that yet. My answer is no."

"Alright, but I'm keeping this thing around just in case."

"Knock yourself out. Now if you could explain how this 'transmat' system works…"  
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With the immediate threat disposed of, Rose, Merrick and RJ had been invited into Wilfred's home for a cup of tea and a brief respite from the fighting. The offer had been turned down as politely as possible, as there was still a city to defend, yet as they left, Rose couldn't help but feel a connection with Wilfred's granddaughter, Donna. She had no idea why, but she couldn't shake the idea that this opinionated, red-headed temp was important to her.

Having finally convinced Wilfred to stay indoors and under his granddaughter's watchful eye, Rose, Merrick and RJ had started making their way through the rest of Chiswick street by street, picking off stray Daleks as they went. It would have been insane to risk a full-out assault, so they stuck to back alleys as much as possible, Merrick taking point, RJ bringing up the rear.

They had taken out about a dozen of the creatures when they got a grisly reminder of just why they were risking their lives doing this. Another man in the street had dared to stand up to a couple of these 'bloody pepper pots,' as he put it, and had convinced his family to go back in their home. Three Daleks had quickly set up shop just outside the front door, called for 'maximum extermination,' and incinerated the flat. No one had any doubt about the lack of survivors in the building. Rose had taken some rather sick pleasure in blasting those three Daleks to bits the first moment she had an opportunity.

"I don't know about you guys," RJ said as they dispatched another Dalek into oblivion, "but this is getting ridiculous. We can't keep this up forever."

"I know," Merrick responded. "But what alternative is there? They're killing everyone who doesn't surrender. We have to do something."

"If only the Doctor were here," Rose said, thinking out loud more than answering. "He'd spend about two minutes rambling like a madman and then suddenly come up with the perfect solution."

"Well, that's all well and good," Merrick retorted, "but he's not, so let's get back to business." He peered around the corner of the brick building they were leaning against. "Coast is clear, let's get a move on."  
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In a flash of light, Jack, Billy and Mickey reappeared in the underground compound that was Torchwood Three. "So how many bomb shelters did they break into as they dug out this place?" Billy mused aloud.

"No one really knows," Jack answered him. "Sorry the place is empty, the rest of the gang is up on the surface, dealing with the invasion."

"So you're what, glorified tech support?" Mickey asked.

"Nothing wrong with being the guy behind the curtain," Billy told him.

"Sometimes it's more fun pulling everyone's strings," Jack finished, with another smirk on his face.

"It's really just the five of you here?" Billy asked him.

"You're the one taking up the lion's share of the budget," Jack answered.

"Touché," Billy replied.

"And yet," Mickey interrupted, "you're the one with the cooler toys." He wandered around, picking up a glove that looked like it was once part of a suit of armor.

"Don't put that on," Jack warned him. "You don't want to know what it's capable of."

"Alright, then," Mickey said as he put the gauntlet back in its box. "So, how do we disable the Death Star without stranding ourselves in deep space?"

"Well, we could always try getting them drunk and asking really nicely," Jack sarcastically told him.

"But enough about your typical Friday night, Jack," Billy responded, rolling his eyes. Mickey responded by laughing like a hyena on the far side of the room, saying something that sounded remarkably like "for the win, mate."

Jack's response was to put his hands together in the "whatever" gesture he had given Mickey in their first meeting in that other universe. "Seriously, we've got a ton of small explosives in addition to the warp star. Grenades, flashbangs, that sort of thing. Not going be anywhere near enough to take all of them out, but enough that they might not be able to keep attacking the planet."

"And we can sneak aboard their ship from here?" Billy asked.

"Exactly." Jack finished.

"Okay. Just give me a couple minutes to figure out this transmit system before we go."

"Why?"

"So I can show Mickey here how to get everyone back."

"Wait, you're not leavin' me 'ere after all this, are you?" Mickey asked incredulously.

"Sorry, Mickey, "Billy explained, looking over the schematics to the device, "but someone's got to stay behind so they can pull everyone back to safety, just in case. This isn't your universe, so it's not exactly your fight. Same applies to Rose when you get back in touch with her."

"You're kiddin' me, right? After all she's done trying to get back, you're gonna try to send her home just like the Doc?"

"No, I'm keeping you two alive so you _can_ get her back home. This Transmat system is giving me a serious case of déjà vu. I'm giving you three coordinates to feed into this machine. The first is the ship in the middle of this thing, where you're sending Jack and myself, and Merrick and RJ when you hear from them. The second is Torchwood One, so you and Rose can get the cannons and go back to your world."

"What's the third?"

"If something happens to Torchwood One and you can't get there, it's the only other safe place I can think of. I hope you don't have to use it."

"Make it back in one piece and I won't."

"That's what I'm counting on," Billy told Mickey as he and Jack stood on the Transmat platform. Mickey entered the first set of coordinates into the console, and watched as the two men disappeared.  
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For the first hour or so, it had seemed like fun, a video game, almost. But these Daleks didn't know the meaning of the word "quit"—or "compassion," for that matter. The death toll was rising, and the only good thing to come of that was that the cries of "EXTERMINATE!" were growing fewer and farther between.

"This is getting us nowhere," RJ pointed out. "We need to get back to the base and figure out our next step."

"It's not a question in my mind," Rose told him. "You want to kill the snake, you cut off its head." Turning to Merrick, she continued. "Can you get us back to Torchwood? We'll meet back up with Mickey and Billy and see about going after their ship, wherever that is."

Merrick took a deep sigh, glanced around, and nodded his head. "Alright, grab on."

They materialized again on the top floor of Torchwood, only to find it deserted. "Where'd they go?" Rose asked, knowing even as she did that neither of her current companions would have the answer.

"Pomona, if they caught the lights right," joked RJ, which only bought him a glare from Rose.

"You're lucky my mum's not here or she'd slap you clear across the street," she told him.

Before RJ had a chance to defend himself, a phone rang. Grateful for the momentary break, RJ put it on speaker. "We're already happy with our long distance provider, so this had better be good."

"Not this kind of long distance, mate," Mickey Smith's voice came through loud and clear.

"Mickey!" Rose exclaimed, unable to recall the last time she'd been so happy to hear his voice.

"'Bout time someone noticed little ol' me. I've got a lock on you all."

"Mickey," Merrick asked over the phone, "do you have any idea where Billy went?"

"We got in touch with another familiar face. Rose, you remember Cap'n Jack?"

"How could I forget?" Rose replied.

"Well, turns out he's here too. At least, some version of him. Didn't stick around long enough to figure out if he knew you or not. I'm leaning towards not, myself. But he and Billy went off to find the mothership. You two boys will probably want to follow them, I take it?"

"That would be nice," RJ responded. "They'll need all the help they can get."

"And what about me?" Rose asked.

"He said you and me were to get the cannons and get home if we could."

"Like hell I'm leavin' now!" Rose told him. "We just got to the good part!"

"Tough luck. Grab them and let's get out of here. We can try again when we get back."

Rose let out a really song sigh at that one. "Fine." She went over to the desk and pulled her Dimensional Cannon out from the top drawer. A second one was sitting right next to it, and a simple process of elimination said it could only be Mickey's. "Alright, Mickey. We're ready."  
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The threesome appeared moments later in that sub-basement in Cardiff. Rose tossed one of the cannons in Mickey's direction, and silently waited while Mickey gave Merrick and RJ the instructions Billy had left. He then activated the transmat, sending the two men off to the coordinates Billy and Jack had disappeared to earlier. Clearing the coordinate entries before Rose could get any bright ideas, he tried to reason with her. "Rose…"

"Don't start with me," Rose said, glaring at him. "They're as bad as the Doctor, and who do they think they're protecting? I'm supposed to be here, if that woman's ramblings upstairs were right!"

"Look, I don't care what anyone said. They're big boys, they can take care of themselves. My job is to get you home safely. Now come on!"

"Then tell them yourself!" She walked over to Mickey and hit the button on his cannon, sending him back to Pete's World. She then ran over to the console, where she saw three sets of coordinates written down on a sheet of paper. Not knowing which one Mickey had used, she entered one in at random and dove onto the platform, disappearing in a flash of light just as Mickey reappeared in the room.  
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Author's notes: As I said at the top, I think this is the weakest chapter I've got in this story. The good news is that I know where I'm going, so it should get better from here.


	10. The One That Got Away

Disclaimer: Good evening, from Los Angeles, I am not Dan Rydell nor am I Casey McCall (thank you, Aaron Sorkin). Every character mentioned in this story is the intellectual property of someone other than myself, and they are used purely for my amusement.  
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Mickey could be forgiven for feeling as though he had just had his brain scrambled. He had just been forcibly transported between parallel universes, crossing the barrier for the third time in less than twelve hours.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the second time, it had been done to him by his best friend, who had done it so she could risk her life to save four people she didn't even know and who had been apparently getting on her nerves over—well, he hadn't figured out exactly what, but it was probably over their bizarre sense of chivalry that had possessed them to try and keep her out of harm's way. He had landed in the Cardiff branch of Torchwood in his world, a place he had never been, startling the staff there by showing up and probably freaking them out again by leaving in a matter of moments. He had arrived back at the spot Rose had evicted him from just in time to be too late. She was gone, beaming herself to parts unknown. He ran to see if there was anything he could do to track her down, but she had apparently done as good a job of covering her tracks as he had. There was no way to know if she had gone with the guys or gone off to one of the other two locations. And he wouldn't be able to guess, either, because she had taken the coordinates with her.

"Is anyone 'ere?" he called out, not really expecting an answer.

He was greeted with silence.

"Great," he muttered to himself. "Fan-bloody-tastic."  
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Far out in the depths of space, Merrick and RJ appeared on the lower decks of the Dalek ship, the _Crucible_. As silently as possible, the pair inched down the corridor, keeping their eyes and ears open for any sign of Billy and this Jack fellow who was apparently with him. They didn't have to wait long. The cries of "EXTERMINATE" reverberating through the hallways were like a homing beacon. The pair came to a corner in the hallway and found Billy taking cover behind what appeared to be an electrical generator, being pinned down by two Daleks. They opened fire and exterminated the pests, as a grateful Billy turned around. "You wouldn't believe how happy I am to see you two," he exclaimed.

"What happened to that other guy Mickey said came with you?" RJ asked.

"Jack? We decided we'd cover more ground if we split up. He went down that way," he gestured towards a hallway Merrick and RJ had just passed a minute ago, "and we agreed to meet up at the bridge, if we ever find it."

"Well then," Merrick said, "what are we waiting for?"

As if on cue, another Dalek rounded the corner. "Exterminate!" it exclaimed.

"You fellas want to do the honors, or shall I?" RJ asked.

"I've got this one," Billy told him, as he lobbed a grenade at it. The device landed about three inches in front of the creature and immediately detonated, leaving only a flaming shell in its wake.

"If nothing else, that's going to attract some attention," Merrick stated for the record. "We'd better get moving."  
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Rose had been hoping to find herself on the Dalek ship with the rest of the guys, so she could tear them a new one for leaving her behind. But that wasn't what had happened. She had landed somewhere she had never expected, largely because she hadn't known until yesterday that this place had even existed. She took a quick glance at her surroundings. It appeared to be a large warehouse, and it seemed to be empty—until she took a step back and hit something that wasn't a wall.

She turned and stared up at what looked like a giant robot. For a brief moment, she thought she'd ended up back at Van Staten's museum, but this was like nothing she had seen there. This thing had to be at least seventy feet tall, had a mostly pink color scheme, and was dominated by a large circle on its chest. Looking further down the hall past it, she saw four similar looking robots, each featuring a different color and shape, but apparently they went together, like five different models of the same car.

"Oh, my God," Rose gasped, even though no one could hear her. "This must be that old Ranger base Billy was telling me about. These must be some of those—what did he call them—zords he mentioned! Incredible."

Before she had time to wax further on her surroundings, another voice broke the silence. "Intruder! Intruder! Ai-yi-yi-yi-yi! What more can go wrong?"

Rose whirled around to find a much shorter robot coming towards her. This one had a head that resembled the flying saucers from old 50's B-movies and a lightning bolt on its torso. "You must be Alpha," Rose said to the automaton, trying to calm it down. "I'm a friend of Billy's. He's told me a bit about you."

"Accessing memory databases" Alpha stated as he went through his files, attempting to determine if there was any reason why girl might pose a real threat. No red flags were raised, so he continued. "I am Alpha 6. Please state your name."

"Rose Tyler."

"Identity entered as 'Rose Tyler.'"

"You can just call me Rose, if you like."

"Affirmative. Welcome, Rose."

"Now then, Alpha 6, where am I exactly?"

"You are in the zord holding bay of the Power Chamber."

"Okay, this is weird."

"Please explain."

"This is only the second time I can ever remember talking to a robot that wasn't trying to kill me."

"Ai-yi-yi! My servers are not equipped to do such a thing!"

"Sorry, Alpha. But why is this still here? I mean, from what the guys told me, this place was destroyed ages ago."

"Only the main chamber where Zordon was stationed. When Zordon returned home to Eltar, the Zeo zords were no longer being used and were placed in storage deep within the complex. They survived the destruction of the main levels and remained dormant there. When I was returned to Earth, Adam Park brought me back here to oversee the maintenance of the zords and the rebuilding of the Power Chamber."

"But why do that when the teams seem to spring up on their own?"

"Because it is necessary to maintain the Morphing Grid."

"Morphing Grid?"

"Yes, the energy field encompassing the globe from which the Rangers draw their powers."

"Right. Well then, Alpha, I'm going to need you to do whatever it is you need to do to get these 'zords,' as you call them, ready to go into battle. The Earth is under attack by a race called the Daleks, and we need to strike back."

"Activating battle preparation sequence," the robot chattered as it walked over to a nearby console and began pressing a series of buttons. "I have started the process," the Alpha said, turning part of his attention back to Rose," but it will take some time as the zords have not been used in over ten years."

"Mind if I have a look around, then?" Rose asked.

"I suppose that would be acceptable," Alpha replied.  
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Billy, Merrick and RJ had fought valiantly, as one would expect, but eventually the numbers game caught up to them and they were cornered. Rather than exterminate them on the spot, however, the Daleks who had them surrounded led them into another section of the ship. "Still no sign of Jack," Merrick whispered to Billy as they carefully took stock of their surroundings.

"Well, no news is good news, right?" Billy responded, daring to think optimistically for a change.

"Well, the Doctor you are not, but such brave fools deserve to view their fate just the same," a voice called out from the darkness. Another tank-like device came towards the three men, but this one had an open top and revealed the emaciated form of Davros, creator of the Daleks.

"Mister Davros, I presume," Billy addressed the—well, given he hailed from a different galaxy, _man_ would probably not be the right word, but he certainly seemed like a him.

"I see my fame precedes me," Davros replied. "Clearly you do not think much of my creations."

"Oh, they're a piece of work, alright," RJ said, "the most racist things I've ever run across."

"Huh?" Merrick asked, confused.

"They want to destroy everything that isn't them!" RJ explained. "If that isn't racist, I don't know what is."

"He's got a point," Billy responded.

"Enough!" Davros shouted. "Regardless of what you think, they are my creations, my children." At this, he opened the top half of his vehicle, revealing what was left of his torso, ribs visible through what flesh was left, his sickly heart (or whatever his species' equivalent was) beating in the open. "Each one grown from one of my own cells. A small price to pay in the name of ruling the universe, wouldn't you say?"

"I'd say you're insane, but that's an insult to millions of asylum inhabitants worldwide," Billy told him.

"And why the whole universe?" RJ asked. "Why can't you just settle for one world like all the other freaks out there?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Davros said, answering the question with another question. "I haven't even gotten to tell you the real genius to this plan."

"Well, as long as you're doing the whole 'supervillain monologue' thing," Merrick interrupted, "what's so important about our little mudball that you needed to hijack it?"

"Very well," Davros started, "as you have probably noticed by now, Earth is hardly the only planet I have acquired for my purposes. There are 26 other worlds that have been taken from all over time and space to complete my ultimate weapon."

"How is everyone still alive?" Billy wondered aloud. "I mean, these planets have all been removed from their respective suns; at some point, the temperatures would drop below what would be considered inhabitable by their indigenous species, right?"

"I could explain, but then I'd have to kill you," Davros deadpanned.

"Sorry I asked," Billy muttered under his breath.

"As I was saying, when properly aligned, these worlds generate a compression field that destabilizes matter on the atomic level. It will erase the entire universe and, in time, _every universe_ from existence, leaving only myself and my creations."  
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Rose had wandered through several halls of this so-called Power Chamber, which seemed to go on forever. _Still not as many rooms as the TARDIS, _she thought to herself, but huge nevertheless. She assumed that Alpha would find a way to let her know when the zords were ready to go. What little she had been told about the robots seemed to indicate they were capable of interstellar travel, though she couldn't be sure.

The only thing she knew for certain was that at least this way she could help, and not just watch idly by. Her Doctor had made that mistake of trying to keep her out of harm's way twice before, and each time the decision had met with disastrous consequences. The first time, she had become the Bad Wolf, incinerating an entire Dalek fleet, but causing the Doctor to regenerate to save her. The second time she had again come back on her own, only to be separated by something as trivial as the void between universes. She was determined not to let that happen again.

She had been wandering for so long that she had inadvertently stumbled upon the rebuilt main control room, complete with the replica suits in glass cases. The story Billy and the others had told her was one thing; seeing physical proof of it was a whole other kettle of fish. She walked past the costumes and circled around the room, ready to head back when out of the corner of her eye, she caught a spark emanating from one of the consoles. She noticed that one of its panels was still loose. _Apparently Alpha hasn't gotten around to finishing the decorating around here_, she thought. She slid the panel off to the side…  
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A/N: Quetzal, you hit the nail on the side of the head a few chapters ago, I was just trying to figure out how to make it work here. The Zeo zords are available because, in something of a rarity in the PR universe, they survived their season finale. (Originally supposed to be dragged off by Billy to water world in the 2nd movie, a plot point scrapped when David Yost quit the show.) And Billy's question to Davros was the biggest scientific plot hole I had with Stolen Earth/Journey's End. How long could life survive without the sun? We really don't want to know.


	11. Taking It Back

Disclaimer: Ownership of either of these shows would have been a nice birthday present, but all I got was this lousy T-shirt. (Holds shirt up to his not-so-adoring audience.) There's always next year, right?  
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Davros had been going on about his plan to destroy the entire universe for some time now. Long enough for Billy to get a really good look at their surroundings. "There's practically nothing in the way of furniture or machinery in this room," he said to no one in particular.

"And what is that to you?" Davros asked.

"You claim that this whole idea is your master plan."

"Which it is."

"And yet, while I'm sure you would love to be the one carrying it out, you have no way of doing that from here. No control panels, no way to monitor conditions outside or potential malfunctions in the system."

"What are you getting at, Billy?" Merrick asked.

"I'm saying," Billy continued, "that if Davros here were really in charge, he wouldn't be wasting his time coming down to the dungeon in person. He'd probably be doing this through a video screen or something."

"So, what," RJ asked, sort of following, "you're saying he's a prisoner in his own ship?"

"Exactly," Billy answered. "Why should I 'respect' these Daleks he created when they don't even show any respect for him?"

"Enough!" Davros exclaimed. "Your planet is important enough to be instrumental in the destruction of reality itself. You should at least stand there silently and feel honored by that."

"Terrific," RJ said, "I'm being lectured by a house pet."

"If it's any consolation," Merrick told him, "you probably won't be the last one."

Before Davros had a chance to answer, a voice came over the ships speaker system. "Attention all Daleks."

"That would be Jack," Billy announced to his compatriots.

"This is Captain Jack Harkness speaking, and I am ordering you all to cease and desist with this assault on Earth. I am currently armed with a warp star and will set it off in your mainframe if you do not return the planet to its orbit and leave immediately."

"What is he doing?" RJ asked.

"Something stupid," Merrick told him. "If this guy's interested in destroying the fabric of reality, what's one ship going to mean to him in the grand scheme of things?"

"Impertinent monkey," Davros sneered, directing his anger towards the disembodied voice. "But it is no matter. The Daleks keep me around out of the respect due to their creator. They will quickly find this fool who is assisting you and bring him here—should he choose to come peaceably."

"Well, I hadn't met him until today," Billy said, "and these two still haven't, so it's anyone's guess."

The continued sounds of laser fire and the occasional explosion provided an answer.

"I suppose that's a negative."  
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Rose couldn't help but stare at the sight before her. She had been expecting some loose wires and computer parts that Mickey would do a better job of identifying than she ever could, but this was something else. The heart of the TARDIS it wasn't, certainly. The fact that it hadn't possessed her on the spot was a key factor in making that determination. No, this was definitely not TARDIS related. But it was the closest point of reference she had to describe it, which was saying something. _The Morphing Grid_, she told herself.

Rose had more than enough experience to tell her that she would be wise not to stick her nose into this sort of business. She also knew that the time to turn around had long since passed. Somewhere out there were three wolves and a carbon copy of an old friend howling away against a force that sought to eradicate them from the universe, and they needed all the help they could get. That pack of theirs was still missing something. It needed one more wolf.

Especially if it was a bad one.

A beeping noise from the console next to the Grid caught her attention. She looked at the readings the computer was spitting out. According to the data, the Grid was starting to overload the system. Rose was puzzled by that information. Why would what was essentially a recharging battery be going into meltdown when it wasn't even being used. "Unless the lack of use _is_ the problem!"

She recalled from RJ's portion of the boys' narrative that his team had successfully completed their battle a few months prior, and that no new threats of that nature had come on the scene since, which was something of an anomaly in this universe. There had been no need for the Grid to dole out a new set of powers, so the Grid had been recharging constantly, with no outlet for the energy it was generating. The power continued to build, like steam in a pressure cooker. It _needed_ to be used, to relieve the stress to the system, restore the balance, and all that.

"That settles it," Rose said to no one in particular. Not knowing for sure what she was doing, she walked back to the first console and placed her right hand directly into the Grid and calmly watched as a golden light enveloped it. In her head, she heard a wolf howling away.  
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Meanwhile, back in the zord bay, Alpha was finishing the diagnostic tests on the old Zeo zords. There was plenty of rust to knock off the old fighting machines after a decade of non-use, and as the Red battlezord had been designed specifically for Tommy, it was useless, but the other ten of them were ready to go, and the self-aware automaton was ready to send the fleet off as soon as Rose could give the order.

"All systems are functioning," Alpha chattered happily. "Rose, whenever you are ready—Rose?" Alpha turned around, and kept turning around, like a dog chasing its tail, suddenly distraught with the knowledge that his new friend was nowhere to be found. "Where did she go!" the robot exclaimed. Its fears only worsened when another alarm sounded, followed by a feed on the computer monitor of Rose, standing in the main control room, engulfed in a yellowish glow, a device that Alpha had never seen before. She then vanished from the room in a stream of light that looked suspiciously like one of the Rangers' old teleportation beams. "Ai-yi-yi-yi-yi!"  
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On the _Crucible_, Jack had fought his way through several hallways of Daleks and was running out of ammunition when he inadvertently stumbled into the room where Davros was having his conversation with the three former Rangers. "Well," Jack started, "at least we're not dead yet."

"For the moment," Billy told him. "Jack Harkness, meet your fellow freedom fighters, RJ and Merrick, and behind you is the guy responsible for all this insanity, Davros."

"You are too kind, for once," the evil genius told his assembled opposition.

"I would say the pleasure's all mine," Jack addressed the—thing in the tank/wheelchair, "but that's never been my experience." Even in the face of almost certain doom, the man could still try to charm the pants off anything.

"Will you tell your friend to stop this foolishness?" Davros asked.

"Okay," RJ answered. "What sort of foolishness would you like to see?"

"Somehow," Merrick said, planting his palm on his face, "I don't think that's what he meant."

"If this is the best your planet can muster, I should be thanked for putting you all out of your misery."

"Well, don't expect any gratitude from us anytime soon," Billy told him. "This planet's been in more dire straits than this before—can't think of any right now, but I'm sure we have. Just like I know we'll find a way out of this one."

"Your friends resort to madness in the face of doom, yet you do not," Davros told Billy. "It is past the time for courage. You have a front row seat to the end of the universe. Your planet will have a starring role in its demise. I am surprised at how well you are taking all of this."

"Well," Billy responded, "as an old earth storyteller once wrote, 'As if it matters how a man falls down. When the fall is all that's left, it matters a great deal.'"

"Then you shall be rewarded with a swift demise. My children will simply shoot you rather than attempt anything more—severe."

"What, they're going to take those plungers and try to suck the life out of us?" RJ asked.

"No, you will have to sit here and watch as I unravel the universe, trapped in the knowledge that you are powerless to stop it, and beg me to kill you to end your suffering."

"He may have a point there," Jack chimed in. "He hasn't even started yet and I'm being bored to death listening to him ramble on."

"Enough!" Davros cried out, his temper nearing its limits. "I have been delayed by this insanity long enough." He flipped a switch on his chair, ready to give his precious Daleks the order to activate the Reality Bomb and bring an end to the universe.

Before he could do that, however, a beam of light came flying into the room, which split into four beams upon landing. Three of them landed in the hands of the three former Rangers, turning into a coin, a cell phone and a pair of sunglasses, respectively. The fourth, when it first materialized, left the other men in the room confused more than anything.

Jack had never seen a Power Ranger in costume before, so as far as he was concerned, it was just another being to hit on, should they survive this. For Billy, Merrick and RJ, they were thrilled to have additional help, but couldn't place the costume. Frankly, from what Billy had seen in the Power Chamber archives, it looked as though someone had stuck the features from the Yellow Galaxy Ranger's helmet onto her Pink teammate's armor. "Who are you?" he called towards the Ranger.

"Take a wild guess, mate," came the reply, in a distinctly London accent.

"_Rose_?"

"I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself—or, at least, that's what I believe I said last time."

"So it is you," Merrick asked.

"Yes. And I bring a gift or three, compliments of Alpha." She then turned towards Davros. "And as for you, the Shadow Proclamation wouldn't be a fitting enough punishment for what you're doing. I am giving you one chance to put everything back: every world, every person, in the time and place from which they were taken, or you will suffer the consequences." To emphasize her point, she held out her hands and an axe suddenly appeared in them.

Jack let out a long whistle. "So _that's_ what you've been doing with the budget, Bill. I'm impressed."

"Not exactly," Billy told him.

"I thought that team all had swords," RJ whispered to Merrick.

"They did," he answered in a hushed tone. "But she wasn't part of that team. Maybe the power is drawing on items she would be familiar with, though why an axe is beyond me."

"This witchcraft will not deter me," Davros sneered, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "It is time to call forth my pest control." He pressed a button on the panel on top of his chair and four Daleks came rolling into the chamber.

"Boys, now would be a good time to make use of those other items," Rose hissed.

"You know," RJ said, holding his shades up to his face, "it wasn't what I used, but these do look awfully familiar."

"No time like the present," Merrick agreed, raising his phone to his ear.

"Shall we?" Billy asked them, flipping his coin once for effect.

"Shall we what?" Jack asked, no clue what was about to happen.

"Just sit back, relax and enjoy the show," RJ told Jack, slipping on the sunglasses.

"It's morphin' time!" Billy called out. "Blue Ranger Power!"

"Wild Access!"

"Jungle Beast, Spirit Unleashed!"

Jack blinked, and rubbed his eyes again to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. Three more Rangers stood where Billy, Merrick and RJ had been just a moment ago. "It would appear the cavalry has arrived."  
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A/N: I'm trying to write in explanations for potential factual/continuity errors without sounding like a Deus ex machina, but that's not going that well, is it? I can only hope gaming out the battle goes better. Hopefully that won't take too long. You know the drill.


	12. If That's What It Takes

Disclaimer: All characters, vehicles, and other proper nouns in this story are the intellectual property of other people and corporations and are used solely for my entertainment. Capiche? (I love how the computer has problems with certain non-English expressions. Déjà vu? No problem. Yiddish words like Capiche? Wrong.) Now then, where were we? Oh, yes, now I remember…  
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"Okay," Jack said, "so for those scoring at home, we now have an evil genius who wants to wipe the universe off the map. Said evil genius has an army that he created by cannibalizing his own body, and the three people I'm working with to thwart his plan are real, proper superheroes?"

"Yup," RJ said, raising the arm his gauntlet was on and pointing it squarely at Davros. "That about sums it up."

"And I haven't done the smart thing and run away because…"

"Because we also have giant robots back on the surface that could come in handy and we'll need another driver?" Rose answered, keeping her eyes peeled on the Daleks that were beginning to stream into the room.

Jack closed his mouth and thought about that for a second. "Okay, good enough reason." That didn't stop him from glancing around the room looking for cover, seeing as he didn't have a costume and was running out of ammo.

"You might want this," Merrick told him, tossing the gun he had been holding over to Jack.

"That's a mighty big gun you have," Jack joked.

"He never stops, does he?" RJ asked.

"Negative," Billy told him, drawing his blade blaster and setting it on "blaster" mode. "Now then, where were we?"

"Preparing to die," Davros finished for him. "Finish them off."

"EXTERMINATE!"

"Oh, blow it out your eye," Rose told them as she swung her axe at the Dalek closest to her, slicing its eyestalk off with one blow. "Oops, did I do that?"

Davros beat a trail out of the room while the fight raged on. The shooting weapons Jack, Billy and RJ were wielding proved to be the most effective at destroying the machines, while Rose and Merrick snuck around the edges, mostly attempting to disable the creatures' sensors rather than kill them. No sooner had they finished off the first wave of attackers when another group appeared at the far doors.

"So," RJ asked rhetorically, "shall we run for our lives?"  
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Back in the old Power Chamber, Alpha 6 was scurrying from console to console, frantically trying to figure out what had happened. The Grid had acted up, Rose had stuck her hand in and since then there had been a massive energy surge that the robot was still trying to trace. "Ai-yi-yi! Where could she have gone?"

Alpha's thoughts were interrupted by something that hadn't happened in this building in years—an incoming communication. "Blue Ranger to Base. Is anyone there?"

"Ai-yi-yi! Billy, is that you?"

"Affirmative, Alpha. The Rangers are back in business."

"Yay! What can I do?"

"The zords are ready to go, right?"

"Affirmative."

"Well, if you can send them up in our general direction, and be advised, we've got one civilian who's going to need a crash course in piloting these things."

"What?"

"Sorry, Alpha, it couldn't be helped. Just send them now."

"Right away, Billy."  
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"Okay, that settles where we're running to, but we've got to figure out a way to stop this thing."

"You should've let me use that warp star when I had the chance," Jack chided him.

"And then where would we be?" Merrick reminded him. "Stranded in space with no clue how to get the earth back where it belongs."

"Not to mention the other planets in this thing," Rose chimed in.

RJ fired his gauntlet at the latest Dalek foolish enough to show up in the hallway. The pile of wreckage was now blocking any potential retreat, though that also had the benefit of making it impossible for more of the pepper pots to get through themselves. "Don't these things ever stop?" he blurted out exasperatedly. "I mean, every time we turn around, there's more of them. They just pop up like whack-a-moles, it's ridiculous, are we ever going to…"

"Breathe, RJ!" Jack told him, grabbing the guy around his shoulders for emphasis. "Alright. I remember vaguely hearing about this battle when I was a kid."

"Huh?" Billy asked, suddenly confused.

"If he's anything like the Jack I remember," Rose filled in, "he's from a long ways into our future."

"Fifty-first century, to be exact," Jack continued.

"You're from 3,000 years in our future?" RJ asked.

"Why not?" Merrick responded. "I'm from 3,000 years in the past."

"Good point."

"Even so," Billy said, "the Earth has moved. This has got to be causing paradoxes all over the place. How has Time Force not picked up on this?"

"Time Force?" Jack asked.

"A team similar to this from the year 3000. They worked for an agency whose entire raison d'etre was to maintain the proper timeline. We should have heard from them by now."

"Unless this is what was supposed to happen," Merrick said.

"How is any of this 'what's supposed to happen?'" RJ screamed.

"Because if it wasn't, the Reapers would come and swallow up all of it," Rose answered.

"Reapers?" Merrick asked, raising an eyebrow.

"These flying reptiles I saw when I tried to change history once," Rose told him. "My dad died when I was a baby, and I had asked the Doctor to take me back so I could see him, and in a moment of selfishness and stupidity, I tried to save him."

"With disastrous results, I take it."

"You can say that again. The Reapers showed up to feast on all the damage done to the timeline, killing everyone in sight, including the Doctor. The only reason I'm still here to tell the tale is because my dad figured out what was happening and let himself be run over by a car to restore things."

"Man, no wonder those guys were so concerned with making sure everything that happened was supposed to happen," Billy said. "Well, we could try causing a paradox on purpose, but I don't have the first clue of how to do that."

"On top of which, they might consume the planet despite your best efforts," Rose told him. "That's out."

"Okay," RJ spoke up. "You said it yourself, Rose. If we want to kill the snake, we need to cut off its head. That means going after Davros. So how do we find him?"

"We do something to upset the balance of this machine he's put together," Billy said, the germ of an idea coming to him. "There are 27 planets here, plus the ship in the center, yes?"

"Correct," Jack said.

"Well, we need to change the equation somehow, either by removing something, or adding something else."

"We're not blowing up a planet," Rose told him sternly. "The Daleks are the only race I'm willing to commit genocide upon."

"I meant, what if we simply moved one out of the way. He must need all 27 to pull this off, so what if there were only 26 here?"

"You're suggesting we steal a planet ourselves," Jack said, mulling it over. "I like it, but how?"

"That's what the zords are for. We combine them, and then use the combined energy of the Grid and the Rift as a tow cable."

"That's brilliant," Rose exclaimed, as a smile broke across her face for the first time in a while. "But wait, you'll need Torchwood to help you with the rift, and I sent Mickey back already."

"Do you really think he'd be dumb enough to stay away?" RJ asked. "He's probably back as we speak."

"One way to find out," Jack said, pulling out his cell phone. "The roaming charges are going to be ridiculous on this one."  
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Torchwood Three in Cardiff was still silent, which was giving Mickey cause to worry about something besides whatever trouble Rose had gotten herself into now. There were no obvious signs of life, just the computers that were still running, monitoring the Cardiff rift for any potential activity—and the phone, which started ringing, piercing the silence. Mickey cautiously approached the device and picked up the receiver. "'Ello?"

"Mickey?" Jack asked.

"Jack?" he answered. "Good, you're not dead."

"Nor you, apparently."

"So what's goin' on?"

"I'm putting Bill on the line, he'll talk you through everything." With that, he handed over the phone and then trained his gun on the end of the hall.

"Mickey?"

"Hang on. Is Rose there, by any chance?"

"Affirmative, but you'd have to see it to believe it."

"Figures. Go on."

"You're still in Cardiff, I take it?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I'm going to give you another set of coordinates. When we hang up, plug those into the rift monitor. Then use the transmat to go back to the London branch and do the same thing."

"I don't have the coordinates for the London branch."

"Why not?"

"Because Rose took 'em with her."

Billy glanced over to Rose, but any facial reaction she had to that news was concealed behind her visor. "Fine, get a pen."

While this was going on, Merrick raised his wrist to his mouth and sent a similar message to Alpha. The robot was scurrying from console to console as fast as its feet could carry it. "All systems are ready," Alpha finally chirped.

"Thank you," Merrick told him as Billy hung up. "The zords are ready to go, and Alpha's already connected the grid."

"And Mickey's going to have our end of things up and running in about a minute," Billy told the group.

"Then you guys get up there and start pulling," Jack told them, "I'll see what chaos I can keep causing here."

"Are you crazy?" RJ asked.

"Not even close," Jack answered. "It's not going to take long for these—whatever they are—to notice your attempted jailbreak. Somebody's got to slow them down. I'm not going to be any use to you driving a ship I've never seen before, it should be me."

"Hey, I haven't seen the inside of these things, either," Rose interrupted. "But how hard can it be?"

"You've got whatever power put you in that getup—which is very easy on the eyes, by the way—telling you what to do. You'll be fine."

"But I don't want to be _fine_. I just want this whole thing over with!"

"Which is what he's doing," RJ reminded her. "He's giving us a chance to save six billion lives, plus who knows how many other worlds."

"The needs of the many," Billy added, though Jack was no Spock. That much was certain.

"Better go, or you'll miss your flight," Jack said to them all, giving a salute that the three men in the room quickly returned. Rose chose to walk over to Jack and give him a hug.

"If this works, we're coming back for you, you know that, right?" she whispered to him.

"If this is the sendoff, I can't wait for the homecoming," he joked.

Okay, Rangers," Billy told the assembled team, "we've got a planet to save. The coordinates are automatically fed into the suit, Rose. Just activate the teleportation system on the belt buckle." The four Rangers then turned into streams of light and disappeared from the hall, leaving Jack holding two firearms and looking for trouble.  
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As soon as the Rangers arrived in the Super Zeo Zords, Billy had the computer take over the gestalt sequence to bring the five machines together. He decided it would just be easier to have them together in the Megazord formation than have everyone fighting over which one they had to drive. The four took their places in a cockpit none of them had ever seen the inside of before. For Billy, he also had the culture shock of sitting in the captain's chair for the first time. "Status report."

Data about the grid and rift were coming through over at what had been Adam's seat, which RJ was looking over. "We have full power from Torchwood and Alpha."

Merrick was sitting in Rocky's old chair going over the weapons and defense systems. "Shields are at maximum."

Rose, seeing as she was wearing Pink, had taken up Kat's position from all those years ago, and was dealing with navigation. "Sol system located 15 light-years away, 4 o'clock."

The fifth chair remained empty, noticeably. Billy honestly wasn't sure what information Tanya usually had had at her disposal in this vehicle. He had been concerned with other things most of the time to worry much about the woman who had sort of been his replacement. _Well,_ he thought to himself,_ when we get this done, we'll put Jack in that chair and let him figure it out._

"Alright, Rangers," Billy told his new team. "Engage the energy cables. Let's bring her home."  
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	13. Save the World

Disclaimer: BBC owns _Doctor Who_ and all its affiliated characters, monsters and the like. Saban owns _Power Rangers_ and all its affiliated characters, machines and such. We're almost at the end, and the scene changes will be fast and furious, so keep your head on that swivel and away we go.  
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The Super Zeo Megazord shook and the sound of creaking metal would have been audible were it not for the vacuum of space as it started pulling on the earth with all possible might. Its motley crew of four was doing everything they could think of to get that big blue marble rolling, as nothing less than the fate of the universe hung in the balance. "Steady as she goes, boys," Rose called out to the other three Rangers in the cockpit.

"Gonna take a bit to get it going," Merrick said in a state of cautious optimism, "but once we do…"

"Inertia takes over and we can just put Sir Isaac Newton in the driver's seat," Billy finished.

"One can only hope," RJ chimed in. "Power's holding steady."

"We've got incoming," Merrick warned suddenly as alarms started sounding inside the Megazord.

"Davros sending out the welcoming committee?" Billy asked.

"In a manner of speaking. The entire system is following us," Merrick answered.

"Fan-_tas_-tic," Rose muttered under her breath.

"We need a diversion," Merrick pointed out.

"Well, that's why we've got backup," RJ responded.

"You mean Jack?" Rose asked.

"No, we mean the second Megazord," Billy told her, raising his wrist up to his helmet. "Alpha, send in the other zords."

"Right away, Billy," was the reply from the robot. Seconds later, the original Zeo Megazord appeared just off their left side.

"Merrick, you've got the wheel here," Billy told him. "I built this other Megazord, so I think I'll have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing."

"I'm coming with you," Rose told him in a manner that indicated she was not to be trifled with.

"I'd tell you not to, but let's face facts: nothing in our brief history together would suggest you're capable of staying out of it," Billy said to her. "Fine. RJ, keep an eye on the Grid. You're not going to have as much power to work with now that both Megazords are active."

"No problem, Billy," RJ answered. "Do whatever you need to."

"Hopefully it won't come to that." Billy turned his head around. "So, does the Bad Wolf have one more hunt left in her?"

"What do you think?"  
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Jack had been sneaking along the corridors of the _Crucible_, keeping a close eye out for any opportunity to sabotage the ship. Loose wires, power generators, even a fire alarm would do in a pinch. Anything to create a distraction that might buy the others a few more precious minutes to get away. Of course, the trail of smoldering wreckage being left in his wake was no doubt helping matters as well.

The hallways suddenly stopped as he found himself approaching the first thing approximating a ship's bridge he'd run across all day. He also heard an argument brewing. Jack decided that, given the circumstances, discretion was indeed the better part of valor and found a console to hide behind while letting the feud play itself out, especially as Davros was quickly proven to be one of the participants in the discussion.

"We must capture these humans," Davros was arguing. "The technology those four seem to possess would be invaluable for future research."

"This is irrelevant," was the response of the Supreme Dalek, which Jack was getting his first real glance at. Taking up the lion's share of the bridge, it seemed to dwarf the tanks he had spent the better part of the last couple of hours using for target practice. _I wonder what it's compensating for_, he thought to himself. While this internal monologue was going on, the Supreme Dalek was going on about how further research would be useless when the Daleks were going to be the only beings left and they had already achieved perfection. An opinion that was not held by any sentient being not on this ship, but one that the Daleks seemed pretty confident about nevertheless.

"They are getting away as we speak," Davros reminded this would-be Emperor. "If they succeed, the device will be unfinished, and then where will we be? Drifting in space in charge of a galactic white elephant! We must capture them."

"They will be exterminated, as will all other life forms. The Daleks are supreme! Advance and Attack! Attack and Destroy!"

Jack watched the exchange go on for a while, eyes rapt. If the combatants were human, he would just tell them to whip 'em out and be done with it. He had heard about times in the past where the Daleks had not seen eye-to-third-eye with their creator. Now it was happening again, and Jack realized that this was a distraction he would do well to take advantage of. He pulled out his last grenade. Davros would be the easier target, leaving however much of a charge he had left in the gun to try and take out the Supreme.

_Only going to get one shot at this_, he reminded himself as he waited for the right moment.  
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"Bringing the Zeo Saber online," Rose told Billy as the two of them raced back towards the _Crucible_ in the Zeo Megazord. Slightly smaller than its aptly-named "super" counterpart, it nevertheless could pack a punch, and Billy was hoping that it could at least damage the ship in an effort to make following their getaway impossible.

"We're going to aim for the engines," Billy said, bringing up a diagnostic scan of the ship. "Make going anywhere difficult for them. Any questions?"

"How close would we have to be to get Jack out of there?"

"Not sure. In theory, we should be able to pull him in from here, but we'd have to know where he was on the ship first."

"I'll start tracing his cell phone, then."

"Negative. We can't spare the power just yet. Not until we know the saber can hit its mark and do some damage."

Rose let out a long sigh. "Fine. Charging Zeo Saber."

"So, are we having fun yet?"

"I'll let you know when we're back on earth in its regular orbit."

"That's the spirit. Locking onto our target. We're going in." With that, the Megazord charged towards the _Crucible_.  
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Just at that moment, Jack decided he had his opening. He pulled the pin on his grenade and rolled it in the direction of Davros.  
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The Zeo Sabre struck its target, a shower of sparks emanating from the _Crucible_ as it drifted by.  
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Unfortunately, the collision knocked the grenade off target, blowing up the main power generator on the bridge. His cover blown, Jack went for broke and fired his gun at the Supreme Dalek. The blast struck the casing surrounding the creature's body, which fell limply to the floor with a satisfying _splat_ when it landed.

"Well, that's one down," Jack said.

"You have ruined my objectives for the last time, you cheeky fool," the Kaled scientist told him. "You will be exterminated, even if it kills me!"

"I kind of figured that," Jack muttered, waiting for the sound of more Daleks to come rolling onto the bridge to finish him off.

But before that could happen, another explosion rocked the ship.  
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"And that takes care of the other engine," Billy commented, slipping back into that 'stating-the-obvious' mode he had filled so often when he first wore the costume.

"We've got a problem," Rose told him.

"What happened?"

"I'm reading massive power fluctuations coming from the ship's engines. They're overloading. We've got maybe ten minutes until it blows!"  
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"You guys hear that?" Billy asked to the pair piloting the earth's tow truck.

"Loud and clear," RJ responded.

"Patching through to Torchwood," Merrick replied, punching in a couple of buttons from the communications array. "Mickey, you there?"

"Yeah, boss," Mr. Smith answered. "What do you need?"

"I need you to get a trace on Jack and get him out of there. The 'Death Star' is about to blow sky high."

"I'm trying, but there's a lot of interference from the explosions. I can't get a lock!"

"Well, keep trying. We'll see what Billy and Rose can do."

"Alpha, come in!" RJ called.

"Ai-yi-yi! Sensors are overloaded, I am unable to pinpoint any life forms onboard the vessel."

"Calm down, Alpha! We're not out of time yet. Keep trying."

"I will. Ai-yi-yi-yi-yi!"  
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"We're getting awfully close to Volcano Day, here," Rose stated.

"I know," Billy told her. "Take the helm."

"And just what do you think you're doing?"

"Going in after him. We've got about eight minutes. If I'm not back in seven, turn this ship around and get as much breathing room as you can."

"No."

Billy let out a frustrated groan. "Fine. Then take this." He handed her his blade blaster. "And hurry."

Rose teleported out in a pink beam of light.  
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Rose reappeared on the _Crucible_, racing down the halls with Billy giving her a countdown every thirty seconds as she dodged flaming wreckage and the occasional not-dead-yet Dalek. She reached the bridge and found Jack running around from console to console, ducking Dalek fire and Davros' variations on the "you'll pay for this!" rant common to thwarted supervillains. Jack had long since chucked the now dead firearm and was simply trying to excel in the twin arts of duck and cover. Rose fired the blaster at one of the Daleks closest to Jack, disabling the tank. She turned her attention to Davros.

"The Valiant Child returns to meet her fate," Davros sneered at her.

"I gave you your one chance. You didn't take it."

"But who will give you yours?" Davros answered back.

Another Dalek wheeled in behind her. If he had been closer, Jack would have tried to jump in the way. However, Rose guessed right and ducked just as the Dalek fired, the beam striking its creator squarely in the chest. He slumped back in his chair, and breathed no more.

"I was wondering when these pepper pots were ever going to hit anything," Rose joked, shooting at the Dalek that had just missed her and eliminating the last threat in the room. "Told you I'd come back," she told Jack.

"Thanks. Now, we've got how long to blow this popsicle stand?"

"About three minutes. But we've got to figure out how to send these planets back while we're at it."

"That's what the panels over here were for. Looks like a mutant version of connect-the-dots. Time for the lightning round!"

Soon four hands were flying across the keyboards as fast as they could. Adipose got its breeding planet back. Pyrovilla was returned to the first century AD, Poosh no longer was missing it's moon, the twin planet of Raxacori—, Raxi— er, uh, Clom, and many more worlds were evacuated and placed back in their proper place.

"Thirty seconds, Rose! It's go time!" Billy screamed over the communicators.

"Alright, Billy. Two to beam up!" Rose cheerily exclaimed as light enveloped her and Jack and the two now found themselves in the cockpit of the Zeo Megazord.

"If there ever is a next time," Billy said as he gunned the engines, sending the Megazord scurrying for cover, "do you think you could cut it just a little closer?"

Rose just laughed and gave Jack another hug as the three Rangers fled the scene. Seconds later, they felt the shock wave of the _Crucible_ exploding overtake them. The old Megazord shook, but held together.

"Everyone okay back there?" RJ called out over the speakers.

"All present and accounted for," Rose told him. Mickey could be heard letting out a loud whoop back in Torchwood.

"I don't know about you guys," Merrick called out, "but I've had enough of an adrenaline rush from this to last me for the next decade."

"I second that," RJ chimed in.

"That makes three of us," Billy answered. "What about you two?"

"This made the RAF look like a walk in the park," Jack said. "I may just go back to the Blitz and give it another shot as a way to relax."

"Don't you dare," Rose told him. "I've seen enough paradoxes for one lifetime."

"Can I buy you a drink while you talk me out of it properly?"

"Not in this reality."

"Hey, enough already, you two," Billy called out. "I will turn this Megazord around!"  
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A/N: All that's left is the goodbyes and Rose's return to…well, wherever she's off to. Thanks for taking this journey with me. I really didn't know what to do with the other 26 worlds, so they just kind of miraculously got put back in their rightful place. Sorry for those of you who were hoping for something…realistic on that front.


	14. Who Says You Can't Go Home?

With the battle over, the four Rangers teleported Mickey over to the Power Chamber to join Jack, Shayla and themselves in a celebration. While Alpha wasn't used to having this many visitors, they figured it was the least they could do. Alpha took the liberty of telling the history of the Power Rangers to Jack and Mickey, with the boys and Shayla filling in details as they went. After the first round of beers (or Martinelli's, for those interested in keeping their wits about them), Alpha led a tour of the complex. Rose stayed behind in the main chamber where Billy was going over the readings on the monitors.

"So, is this what you always do when the world's saved?" she asked him.

"Pretty much. I usually come here after the really harrowing escapades. Just a reminder that while this part of my life was over, I was still contributing."

"Is there going to be a quiz over this lecture?"

"No. Just wondering if you were ready to go home."

"Don't get me wrong. This has been the greatest adventure I've had since that time the Doctor took me to a planet on the edge of a black hole, but I really want to get back."

"Maybe we can get you there."

"What do you mean?"

"How do you set the Dimension Cannons for travel between parallel worlds?"

"We got to this one by blind guess, but we had a coordinate system for my home world. But that's been sealed off."

"Only from the world you jumped from. It's simple triangulation. You have the corners: the three parallel worlds you've visited. We know the path you took from your home world, which we'll call Earth Prime, to Earth 2…"

"Pete's World," she corrected him.

"Pete's World it is, then. And from Pete's World to ours. Side-Angle-Side. We can figure out the path from our world to Earth Prime."

"Is it really that simple?"

"Basic high school trigonometry. Okay, maybe not _that_ basic, but it's just math."

"Then what are we waiting for?"  
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A few hours later, the numbers had been crunched and everything seemed to be in order. The six heroes and their two guardians stood on the roof of Torchwood One as Rose and Mickey said their goodbyes. Alpha was about as emotional as one could ever expect a robot to be. It was a wonder he hadn't started to rust. Shayla simply smiled and reminded both of them to keep up the job they were doing. And to go easy on the Cannons, as they still weren't sure what kind of environmental damage they were doing.

Rose turned to Jack and laughed at how crestfallen his made his face look when she told him he was like a brother to her. "I'll see you soon," she told him. "At least, some other version of you."

"I'm already jealous—and having some very kooky thoughts here," he cracked.

Merrick and RJ walked over to the two pair together and shook hands with them. "Mickey," Merrick told the man, "thanks for being here. We really did need the help."

"No worries, mate," he said. "Nice to hear it every once in a while, though."

"I got the message," Rose said, lightly punching Mickey on the arm.

"Good luck finding this Doctor fellow," RJ added.

"Thanks, we're gonna need it. And Merrick, don't forget what I told you about—" she nodded her head in the direction of Shayla, and he nodded silently in return.

Billy walked over to the foursome. "Scarecrow," Rose said, pulling him into a hug, "I think I'm gonna miss you most of all."

"I had Alpha work on getting you a going away present from all of us," he said, presenting her with the axe she had wielded while in her Ranger armor. "Still not sure why you went with it, but it sure worked."

"It's what I used to save the Doctor's life on our first adventure together, when we stopped those shop window dummies," she explained, handing it over to Mickey for the moment.

"Well, now you can show it off to him someday, and use it to remember us by, as well. You're one of us now, and there's no doubt about that." Billy stuck his hand into the center of the group, and Merrick, RJ and Rose quickly placed theirs on top. "Once a Ranger," he started.

"ALWAYS A RANGER!" The four threw their hands up in the air.

"Did we ever come up with a name for this team?" Merrick asked.

"I don't know. 'Wolf Pack seems a little too obvious, doesn't it?" RJ spoke up.

"Never stopped us before," Billy told him.

"What was that place you talked about in Norway, Rose?" RJ asked. "Dalek?"

"Dår_lig_. Dårlig Ulv."

"Well then," Billy summed up, "the 'Pack of Dårlig Ulv' it is."

"Oi, mate" Mickey spoke up. "We're not all wolves, here."

"Point taken. League, then. Like that graphic novel about all those Victorian literary characters."

"Right, then," Rose said. "To my fellow League members, it's been an honour."

"Good luck, you two," Billy called out. Then Rose and Mickey hit the buttons on the Cannons and disappeared.  
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Rose had been expecting Mickey to be right next to her when she re-emerged from the jump. But she was alone. It was nighttime here in London, and she could hear all sorts of screaming coming from the streets. Quickly Rose dashed to the lift and rode it to the ground floor. Emerging from the tower, she saw beams of light rising towards a spaceship, each one dotted with what looked from a distance like hailstones—that were rising rather than falling. Curious, she rushed down the street as far as she could until she reached a police barricade. The upward hail had stopped, but she was hearing from people that it hadn't been hail, but _fat_. Living, breathing fat.

She pondered the information she had gleaned from this for a while until a ginger woman came running by and asked if she could pass a message on to a woman named Sylvia about the location of a set of keys. It wasn't until the woman had left that Rose realized who she had been: Donna, she with the smart, yet foolhardy grandfather from the Rangers' world. _Well, at least she's okay here, too_, Rose thought to herself. She started to walk away, and as she went to hit the button on the Cannon to send her back to Pete's World, she heard what, to her, was the most beautiful sound in the world—the TARDIS taking off.  
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Several months later, Rose's quest ended in a manner that she was certainly not expecting. The battle on the Crucible had played out very differently in her original universe, though with a similarly triumphant result. But the aftermath where everyone had gone their separate ways had been the real shock. Mickey had been the one to go home in the end, tagging along with Captain Jack and another of the Doctor's companions named Martha. Rose had been rather unceremoniously dropped back in Pete's World with her mother and a carbon copy of the Doctor who shared all his memories but wasn't really him. Just like Pete wasn't really her dad. Still, as she had told Merrick on a rooftop so long ago, certain things really do need saying. This Doctor, who only had one life to live, had said in no uncertain terms that he was willing to spend it with her. That was all she had wanted to hear.

When they all got back from Norway, Rose invited John Smith, as the human Doctor was taking to calling himself, up to Torchwood to show him around the office. She got to her desk and pulled out a pink axe. "Where on Earth did you get that?" John asked her.

"Just a gift from one Bad Wolf to another."  
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A/N: and that's the end of our tale. I want to say thank you to all of my readers out there. Special thanks to: Quetzalcoatls and Doctor Tardis for their faithful reviews and kind words; Bon Jovi (every chapter title was a song they recorded); and to crazy and talented actors like Billie Piper, Noel Clarke, John Barrowman, David Yost, Phillip Andrew and David de Lautour who have made these shows so disturbingly addictive over the years. That's all from me for now and if you've had half as much fun reading this story as I had writing it, well then I've had twice as much fun as you!

~AF


End file.
